TABLE 5. Sanitation and other food safety practices used by meat and poultry processors, by type of product produced (percentage of plants) Inputs to Further Processing Sanitation and Food Safety Practice Sanitation Practices Routinely sanitizes equipment that contacts RTE producta Routinely sanitizes hands after contacting RTE producta Routinely sanitizes hands after contacting raw meat or poultryb Sanitizes hand tools during operations Sanitizes drains for pathogen control Rotates sanitizers annually or more frequently Other Practices Treats food contact equipment and surfaces to remove biomatter during operations Uses antimicrobial treatment for food contact equipment during operations Stipulates practices for controlling pathogens in purchase specifications for raw meat and poultryb Stipulates practices for controlling chemical residues in purchase specifications for raw meat and poultryb Has written policies and procedures for recalls Has written policies and procedures to control hazardous chemicals Has written policies and procedures to protect against bioterrorism Identifies and tracks products by production lot, backward to specific suppliers Identifies and tracks products by production lot, forward to specific buyers Conducts independent audits of processing operations Has quality control/quality assurance department RTE = ready-to-eat; NRTE = not ready-to-eat. RTE Products NRTE Products All Plants 90.6 83.8 74.5 90.5 89.3 70.5 62.8 53.6 60.4 92.0 84.8 74.5 88.6 83.9+++ 68.1 58.5+ 45.5+++ 67.5+++ 87.6 81.9 73.1 87.7 91.1 74.4 51.9 44.0** 65.1 90.6 83.8 73.5 88.5 83.7 67.5 58.5 46.7 64.2 36.1 37.2 44.5** 36.8 81.6 72.4 44.8 74.2 70.9 44.9 56.1 76.9++ 71.8 39.1+ 74.8 66.6++ 35.4+++ 45.1+++ 85.6 81.1** 53.8** 82.5** 82.3 62.9 67.5 78.3 72.0 41.3 75.0 69.1 39.0 49.9 Note: Plants may produce products in more than one category and thus may be represented in more than one column of this table. a For respondents that produce RTE product. For respondents that purchase raw meat and poultry. b See Table 3 for description of notation used to indicate statistical significance. 924 FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS | DECEMBER 2008