• This directive provides instructions to supervisory personnel responsible for addressing appeals from official meat and poultry establishments, egg products plants, official import inspection establishments, identification (ID) warehouses, and other facilities where FSIS provides inspection service. The directive provides instructions to supervisory personnel regarding how to respond to an appeal of a noncompliance record (NR) that has been presented to FSIS by an establishment representative through the Public Health Information System (PHIS), or has been presented orally, or in writing. The directive also provides instructions to inspection program personnel (IPP) regarding how to delete or modify an NR in PHIS.
  NOTE: Appeals related to other noncompliances or enforcement actions (e.g., Notices of Intended Enforcement (NOIEs), Office of Investigations, Enforcement and Audit (OIEA) actions, laboratory results) are to be appealed through the applicable supervisory chain of command.
• This directive has been revised to incorporate all the instructions into the body of the directive. In addition, clarifications have been included based on PHIS data analysis, and from trend analysis of questions submitted through askFSIS.
• For the purposes of this directive, “supervisory personnel” refers to any Office of Field Operations (OFO) personnel, at any level, that supervise IPP who conduct verification activities in official establishments or other facilities. This term includes Supervisory Public Health Veterinarians (SPHVs), Supervisory Consumer Safety Inspectors (SCSIs), Inspectors-in-Charge (IICs), Multi-IPPs Supervisors, Frontline Supervisors (FLS), District Managers (DMs) and Deputy District Managers (DDM).

KEY POINTS:

• Provides instruction to supervisory personnel regarding the decision process when responding to industry appeals; how to address industry appeals submitted through PHIS; and how to address industry appeals submitted orally or in writing (i.e., not submitted through PHIS)
• Provides instruction to IPP regarding how to delete an NR in PHIS when an appeal has been granted and how to modify a denied appeal based on instruction from the supervisor
• Clarifies that there is no timeframe in which FSIS requires an appeal to be submitted by an establishment for consideration
• Provides instructions to IPP and supervisory personnel regarding how to get references to appeals excluded from establishment meeting agendas and weekly meeting MOIs once the appeals have been resolved