Time short for grain handlers to implement 2002 Bioterrorism Act record-keeping requirement

Grain handlers have only five months left to put in place an approved record-keeping process in order to comply with the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. The Bioterrorism Act of 2002 requires grain elevator operations which receive, hold, and ship raw agricultural commodities, such as corn, soybeans, wheat, alfalfa meal, and other crops to register all their facilities, wherever food grains are received, cleaned, stored, blended, and processed, and then shipped. This mandate to keep records of all grain received and shipped through the facilities is required to help prevent acts of contamination either by terrorists or by natural contamination. Feed mill operations which receive raw agricultural commodities and manufacture them into animal and pet feed also are required to comply with this law. Even the delivery truck and its drivers have to be recorded.

The recordkeeping process must be in place by June 2006. After this date, all records must be available to the FDA as soon as possible, and no longer than twenty-four hours after a request is made if an act of contamination is tracked to a grain handling operation.

-read more at ScoringAg Web site