During the last week of July 2011, AQIS released Meat Notice 2011-05 - "Cessation of AQIS assessment (acceptance) of chemicals (hazardous substances) used in export meat industry".  This Meat Notice was effective from 01/07/2011.

Click here to download AQIS Meat Notice 2001-05

Basically this notice means that IOA's/LOA's  will not be renewed upon expiration as the old chemical approval process as we knew it has effectively been dismantled.  Instead a manufacturer's declaration detailing a particular product's fitness for use in an Export Meat Establishment will be accepted.  IOA/LOAs already in the system will remain so until they expire and then AQIS wants the new declaration as their replacement.

Garrards have already contacted our suppliers who have expired IOA/LOAs, and we expect that they will now prepare and send new Declarations as detailed in the Meat Notice to cover this new requirement. These new Declarations will be featured on our website as we receive them from our suppliers.  This will probably take some time for the suppliers to have their chemists sign off on the Declarations so most are not yet available.

Any such Declarations will replace AQIS Approval listings in the MSDS pages of our website as we receive them. Iif the IOA/LOA is still current when we receive a Declaration we will list both the IOA/LOA and the Declaration until the Approval expires.

We will highlighted the website product listing with the following text to make it more obvious:

Note new AQIS Manufacturer's Declaration listed 03/08/2011

Note also the Meat Order's call for SDS (Safety Data Sheets) instead of the MSDS format projected for future use.  We will also request suppliers to start releasing SDS as well as MSDS. 

There is also more onus on the Export Meat Establishment itself to monitor and determine when and where such items can be used.

As more information comes from AQIS we will pass it along.  Not sure what will happen with FoodSafe/HACCP type auditors but we will be lobbying them to accept the product label plus probably a statement from the PCO stating that they will apply products according to the product label.

If you are not receiving our E-Newsletters or Pest Review we may need to update your details on file.  If you would like to receive this information please contact your nearest Garrards branch or E-mail Craig.

We are happy to assist with audits should you require it.

More information will be posted here as it comes to hand