What's a preferable breed of hog?
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Baconologist
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The standards are detailed on the Trichinae Herd Certification Program website:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/trichinae/
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/trichinae/
Godspeed!
Bob
Bob
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Baconologist
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- Location: Oxford, New Jersey
Looks like "certified pork" will take a bit of study. To get onto a lot of the information on the USDA site, you have to register, but there's some that's accessible. ...and as always in this type of writing, there are some phrases which are real jewels, such as "not nearly non-existent." But there's some good information. Too bad that the diagram is too impossibly small to read.
Referring to Baconologist's rat warning:
"Few production sites met all criteria established within the audit for risk-free management practices. Most of the deficiencies were noted in the lack of a regular rodent control program around swine rearing buildings. However, it was estimated that greater than 85% of these sites could meet good production practice criteria with minor improvements in management. From a total of 221,123 carcass samples tested from audited farms during a 6 month period, no Trichinella positive carcasses were detected by diaphragm digestion or ELISA."
Here's the "meat" of the program (sorry for the pun):
"The proposed certification process includes the following elements: 1) Veterinarians, trained in good production practices relative to trichinae, work with their producers to ensure that trichinae risk factors are minimized on their farms; 2) The on-farm audit will serve as a method to document the absence of trichinae infection risks. Audits will be done periodically to ensure that good production practices relative to trichinae remain in place; 3) On a regular basis, a statistical sample of the national trichinae certified herd will be tested at slaughter using diaphragm digestion or ELISA to verify the absence of infection; and 4) USDA veterinarians will conduct random "spot audits" of certifications to ensure completeness and the integrity of the program."
So it looks like the certified pork program is an exercise in statistics, probably with a tracking system similar to what was proposed for the BSE ("mad cow") program. You don't hear about the cattle program much, these days, except from beef producers and import/export people. What about the pork program? It would probably take an outbreak (heaven forbid) similar in scale to recent E. Coli outbreaks to draw attention to it. The recent E. Coli problems were due to cleanliness and processing/food handling problems, but the principle is the same- - careful production, handling, processing, and serving in order to keep our consumers (and us) healthy.
So anyway, stay safe. There are many things that we, as sausage makers, can do to increase or ensure the safety of our products. The whole crux of our sausage making hobby is making tasty but safe processed meat. Any information that can be shared benefits us all.
Referring to Baconologist's rat warning:
"Few production sites met all criteria established within the audit for risk-free management practices. Most of the deficiencies were noted in the lack of a regular rodent control program around swine rearing buildings. However, it was estimated that greater than 85% of these sites could meet good production practice criteria with minor improvements in management. From a total of 221,123 carcass samples tested from audited farms during a 6 month period, no Trichinella positive carcasses were detected by diaphragm digestion or ELISA."
Here's the "meat" of the program (sorry for the pun):
"The proposed certification process includes the following elements: 1) Veterinarians, trained in good production practices relative to trichinae, work with their producers to ensure that trichinae risk factors are minimized on their farms; 2) The on-farm audit will serve as a method to document the absence of trichinae infection risks. Audits will be done periodically to ensure that good production practices relative to trichinae remain in place; 3) On a regular basis, a statistical sample of the national trichinae certified herd will be tested at slaughter using diaphragm digestion or ELISA to verify the absence of infection; and 4) USDA veterinarians will conduct random "spot audits" of certifications to ensure completeness and the integrity of the program."
So it looks like the certified pork program is an exercise in statistics, probably with a tracking system similar to what was proposed for the BSE ("mad cow") program. You don't hear about the cattle program much, these days, except from beef producers and import/export people. What about the pork program? It would probably take an outbreak (heaven forbid) similar in scale to recent E. Coli outbreaks to draw attention to it. The recent E. Coli problems were due to cleanliness and processing/food handling problems, but the principle is the same- - careful production, handling, processing, and serving in order to keep our consumers (and us) healthy.
So anyway, stay safe. There are many things that we, as sausage makers, can do to increase or ensure the safety of our products. The whole crux of our sausage making hobby is making tasty but safe processed meat. Any information that can be shared benefits us all.
Experience - the ability to instantly recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Bob, from your post a few back that talks about fat hardness in US vs. CA pork I have noticed a difference but didn't know why. I had a lot more fat render out from my last batch of bellies but the batch before this rendered very little fat. I recently changed suppliers and switched from berkshire bellies from CA to berkshire bellies from Eden Farms. The US stuff was much thicker, waaay fattier and like I mentioned rendered out quite a bit more fat. Thanks for the info (and Ross for providing the initial link)
