Welcome to your Summer 2022 edition of Field Notes!
We have some new subscribers to welcome since we last published - we are glad you are here! If you want to "catch up", we invite you to review prior editions of Field Notes, but if you want to just get started with this one, that works since each of our newsletters is written in a manner that hopefully allows for "stand-alone" enjoyment. The purpose of Field Notes is to share with you, in an informal style, the ways in which the public servants employed by the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets' Food Safety & Consumer Protection Division support and protect Vermonters. Behind every successful program are capable dedicated experts, and we are happy that Field Notes provides a forum for you to learn a bit more about the programs that benefit Vermonters and to meet the people who make those programs successful.
Unlike prior editions, this iteration of Field Notes does not have an obvious unifying theme. We will perhaps get back to that next time, but there is such a diverse scope of work being completed right now that we are treating this edition as a bit of a "grab bag", hopefully with something for everyone! After all, that is what is best about summers in Vermont - there are always plenty of events to choose from, and if you don't like the weather in one moment, well, you know what they say...
Enjoy this summer read, and thank you for being here!
-Kristin Haas, Director, Food Safety and Consumer Protection Division
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OK, every good summer newsletter has to lead off with a great Vermont farm summer sign! This is my new favorite, and it worked - I had to come to a complete stop to take this photo. No pigs were injured during the making of this newsletter!
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One for All and All for One Health
By Dr. Kaitlynn Levine, Animal Health Section Chief and Assistant State Veterinarian
Over the past year Field Notes has highlighted the regulatory and disease control efforts of the Agency’s Animal Health team. We have profiled the wide variety of work performed by this Agency team and have reviewed the ways in which intelligence analysts protect animal agriculture. Most recently, we covered the ongoing high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) pandemic and how it affects Vermont. But what if you don’t personally own animals or work in agriculture? How does “animal health” impact you? We will answer that question by introducing you to the concept of One Health.
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One Health is an approach to challenges that recognizes that the health of people, animals, and our shared environment is closely linked. COVID-19, HPAI, and climate change are prime examples of challenges that benefit from a One Health approach. Humans are primarily affected by COVID-19, but pets can become infected from their owners. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been found in wastewater and has been detected in white tailed deer in the US and Canada. Wild waterfowl are the reservoir for HPAI and may spread the virus to domestic birds directly or through environmental contamination. In two instances, the current HPAI strain has been found in humans. Our collective human footprint has impacted the climate, contributing to more extreme weather patterns and providing new opportunities for human diseases to pass to animals. An effective response to these and other similar emergencies requires the combined efforts of human health, animal health, and environmental health professionals. For example, Vermont utilizes a One Health approach when managing zoonotic diseases, which are those that are shared between humans and animals.
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Rabies management in Vermont is a perfect example of a successful One Health approach in action! Rabies is a virus that is spread through the bite and saliva of infected mammals. Globally it results in nearly 60,000 deaths each year. But in the US, there were only 25 human cases between 2009-2018, and nearly a third of those occurred due to exposures from beyond our borders. The most common route of human exposure involves wildlife – either directly or by first infecting domestic animals, like pets.
The Agency’s Animal Health section collaborates regularly with colleagues in the Vermont Departments of Health and Fish & Wildlife, and with USDA Wildlife Services, to manage this disease throughout Vermont and prevent cases in humans and animals. Rabies reporting, sample collection and testing, and vaccine administration are overseen by these agencies. The Vermont Department of Health provides oversight in cases where humans or pets have been exposed to rabies. Food safety requirements, managed by the Agency of Agriculture’s Animal Health and Dairy sections, are also in place to protect human health, including a requirement for rabies vaccination of all livestock producing milk that is sold to consumers without being pasteurized. USDA wildlife biologists manage the National Rabies Management Program in Vermont and work cooperatively with partners to distribute oral rabies vaccination baits in targeted areas to reduce the risk to wildlife and decrease rabies virus spillover to humans and pets. And of course, domestic pets in our state are required to be rabies vaccinated. All four agencies jointly fund Vermont’s Rabies Hotline, which enables prompt reporting of rabies concerns.
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Call the Vermont USDA Rabies Hotline at 1-800-4-RABIES (1-800-472-2437)
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The fight against rabies is not over, as there still is no cure. But a One Health approach to rabies prevention in Vermont and elsewhere, including the widespread use of vaccine amongst all areas of concern - wildlife, domestic animals, and humans - has greatly reduced the risk to humans in our state, throughout America, and worldwide.
Other One Health initiatives in Vermont focus on prevention of vector-borne illnesses like West Nile virus and epizootic hemorrhagic disease, mitigation of antibiotic resistance, and response to emerging environmental contaminants like PFAS/PFOAs. These impact the health and well-being of humans, animals, and the environment, and benefit from a One Health approach to solutions.
You can rest assured that the Agency's Animal Health team and partner colleagues will continue to use One Health to protect your health!
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Maple Inspection “Report Card”
By Tucker Diego, Agriculture Products Manager
For the past several years the Agency’s Maple Program has published inspection results from the routine maple product inspections it conducts at retail stores throughout the state. You can think of these as “report cards” for how well maple products meet Vermont requirements. Inspectors review product labels and sample maple syrup to ensure those products meet standards for quality, food safety, and fair labeling. This work is important for maintaining a fair market for producers, protecting consumers from unsafe products or inaccurate labeling, and supporting the high quality of Vermont’s maple industry.
Without further ado, here are the latest results:
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Legend: IN = in compliance, OUT = out of compliance, GD = Golden/Delicate, AR = Amber/Rich, DR = Dark/Robust, VDS = Very Dark/Strong
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These results are from nineteen inspections which were completed between January and June, and included thirteen routine, one follow-up, and five for-cause inspections. Each of the for-cause inspections was conducted in response to a consumer concern received from a member of the public. Consumer concerns can be filed on the Agency’s website or by contacting the Agency at (802) 828-2433.
A key component of the inspection process is the sampling of maple syrup to determine whether it meets Vermont grade standards for color, flavor, clarity, and density. Of the forty-nine pure maple syrup products inspected this year, twenty-nine passed inspection. The remaining twenty products were noncompliant due to one or more reasons listed above.
Maple syrup that was too dark for grade was the most common quality issue. Other reasons for not passing inspections included the presence of off-flavors such as the naturally occurring “buddy” flavor, visible mold, syrup with density that is either too high or too low, and labeling issues.
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Mold on the inside seal of a container of maple syrup that wasn’t packaged properly
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While it remains uncommon to find food safety issues during retail inspections, inspection staff did conduct one for-cause inspection that resulted in maple syrup being voluntarily recalled from sale due to the presence of lead in the syrup. Samples were taken and analyzed by the Agency’s Agriculture and Environmental Laboratory and were confirmed to contain high levels of lead, which is a toxic substance that is not allowed in food. Program staff are working with the producer to eliminate sources of lead in their production practices.
Inspections also revealed a handful of labeling issues, including a maple flavored product and two artificially maple flavored products produced by out-of-state companies. Vermont's Maple Law and Regulations apply to all maple products sold in Vermont, including products that contain maple syrup as an ingredient or make maple-related claims on their labels. Program staff are also working with these distributors to correct the labeling issues.
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Inspectors look at all products that make maple-related claims, including artificial maple flavored products as shown in this picture.
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Further details about the 2022 maple inspection results, Maple Law and Regulations, and inspection procedures can be found on the Agency’s website. The Agency’s Maple Program staff look forward to continuing to collaborate with Vermont maple producers to support one of our state’s signature products into the future.
Stay tuned for next year’s “report card” to see how results compare in 2023!
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“At Least Equal To”
By Joni Bales, Meat Inspection, Food Safety Specialist
Wowza, what a track record! Since 1967, the Food Safety Specialists within the Vermont State Meat Inspection program have been providing daily inspection services in each Vermont meat processing and slaughter establishment. These inspection services occur on every day these establishments produce meat products bearing the State of Vermont mark of inspection. There are currently seven commercial state slaughter establishments and five commercial state meat processors. Additionally, Food Safety Specialists provide periodic sanitation inspection at 31 custom slaughter and processing facilities (meat produced as custom is for the personal consumption of the owner and marked “Not for Sale” to the public). Periodic sanitation reviews are also completed at the more than 1800 retail meat establishments. Retail vendors include all locations that sell any form of meat or poultry, including the obvious grocery stores, farm stands, and even gas stations and hardware stores.
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Packaged meat on a supermarket showcase - image sourced from iStock Photos
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Vermont’s unique agricultural economy makes the state meat inspection program essential. We are a state of small and local growers and producers and benefit from a regulatory structure that accommodates this. Increasingly, the farming and processing of our nation’s meat and poultry is being concentrated in just a few companies. This is not the case in Vermont.
The ability of small slaughterhouses and processors to be inspected locally enables farmers who have just a few head of cattle or pigs, or a few hundred chickens, to get those products into the marketplace and enhance the income of their farm. For meat and poultry to be sold in Vermont, it must be processed and slaughtered under inspection (review the April 2022 edition of Field Notes to learn about exemptions for small poultry producers). It is a uniquely Vermont experience for a customer to be able to drive through the countryside and see functioning farms, meet the farmers, see the animals or produce right there in the barn or field, and then buy the meat and poultry at the farm stand or a nearby grocery after it has been processed, packaged, and labeled under inspection. To put it in perspective, when it is said that Vermont producers are small by comparison, Vermont slaughterhouses are processing a few dozen livestock or a few hundred poultry per day, usually 1 to a few days a week. This is in comparison to few thousand livestock or a few hundred thousand poultry in the very large establishments of the South and Midwest!
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Vermont State Meat Inspection Program Section Chief Julie Boisvert discusses production records with Phil Brown, owner of Brown’s Meat Processing in Glover, Vermont while his employees package ground beef.
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The Agency’s state inspection program can best be described as “interlaced” with the Federal Meat Inspection Program which is operated by the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS). There is a formal cooperative agreement between the state inspection program and the federal inspection program. All Food Safety Specialists that work in the state program go through the rigorous six - month USDA training process alongside their federal counterparts. They attend a mandatory one-month USDA training seminar on Inspection Methods, as well as classes specifically detailing inspection procedures at livestock and poultry slaughter establishments. The methods and criteria for inspecting state and federal establishments are almost “exactly” the same. This is no coincidence, as it is required under regulations dictated by the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act that give inspectors their authority. All state meat inspection programs must ensure that state meat and poultry processors follow regulations that are “At Least Equal To” the rules outlined for federal establishments.
The USDA FSIS conducts two types of audits of state programs to verify their “At Least Equal To” status.
- Annually, the USDA audits all of the states' records, inspections, reports, test results, etc.
- Every three years, the USDA conducts an actual on-site review of all state establishments and programs. They must accept Vermont’s system for our program to retain the “equal to” status. You may recall from the June 2021 edition of Field Notes that Vermont's state program passed its last on-site audit with flying colors!
The USDA provides a 50/50 funding match that enables the Vermont Meat Inspection program to provide services to Vermont meat and poultry businesses. If Vermont did not have its own meat inspection program, all meat and poultry slaughterers and processors would have to be inspected by the USDA FSIS.
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Brown’s Ground Beef bearing Vermont’s official mark of inspection.
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In addition to its state-inspected establishments, Vermont has 12 USDA inspected slaughter establishments, and 15 meat/poultry processors. Some of these establishments have a full-time inspector employed by the USDA. This is especially true at slaughterhouses that operate year-round.
State and federal slaughterhouses must have an inspector present the entire day, from the moment the first animal is presented for inspection until the last carcass is stowed in the cooler. Processors must have an inspector present for a portion of each day that they are processing. These establishments do everything from smoking bacon and hams, making beef jerky, and making frozen pizzas, to cutting up whole sides of meat into retail cuts and packaging them.
Another part of the cooperative relationship between Vermont's meat inspection program and the federal program is that our state inspectors are frequently utilized to inspect at federal establishments where there is no full-time federal inspector, or to cover when that inspector is on leave. This further illustrates the need for Vermont’s meat inspection program to maintain “At Least Equal To” status; otherwise, Vermont inspectors would not be able to fulfill this vital role.
The role of Vermont Food Safety Specialists is multi-faceted - they are essential to ensuring farmers and meat processors can legally get their product into commerce, and they ensure the consumer is protected. The mission of the program is: “To protect the health and welfare of consumers and the public by assuring meat and poultry products produced are wholesome, unadulterated, and properly marked, labeled, and packaged." Your Food Safety Specialists work very hard every day to uphold this important mission!
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Does Metrology Impact You? You Bet it Does!
By Marc Paquette, State Metrologist and Weights & Measures Section Chief
Did you know that the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets employs two nationally recognized metrologists who manage the state’s Metrology Laboratory, maintain Vermont’s official lab standards, and conduct calibrations of other field standards used by the inspection program and industry, all for the benefit and protection of you, the Vermont consumer? These experts “work their magic” from the first floor of the Vermont Agriculture and Environmental Laboratory, located in Randolph. Vermont-registered companies that sell and maintain weighing and measuring devices are required to submit their equipment each year to the laboratory for certification. The most common items submitted are test weights used to calibrate scales and test measures used to calibrate fuel meters at gas stations. State metrologists provide traceability, technical advisement and calibrations of equipment used by inspectors and service companies. They ensure that Vermont consumers get what they pay for at many locations including gas stations, retail stores, or anywhere a transaction takes place where a measurement is involved.
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The Vermont Agriculture and Environmental Laboratory
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It is incumbent upon every professional to ensure that he or she maintains expertise in a chosen field of practice, and your state metrologists are no exception. Each year they attend training provided by the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) in support of that organization’s certification of metrology laboratories across the country. Attending this training and demonstrating ongoing proficiency allows Vermont’s Metrology Laboratory to receive a Certificate of Metrological Traceability from NIST, which provides objective evidence of proficiency and traceability. Recently, Vermont experts joined colleagues from eight northeast states and three private companies for a NIST training event held in New Jersey.
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View from the training site in New Jersey
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A highlight of the training was the review of Proficiency Test (PT) results where metrologists’ technical performance is assessed. These tests provide evidence that calibrations meet stringent quality control requirements and compare the results with those of other participating labs.
Training participants also enjoyed a tour of the New Jersey metrology lab, affording them an opportunity to view key parts of the facility and collaborate with New Jersey’s metrologists. There is significant commerce and industry in the Newark/New York city area, and the facility is well equipped to meet the needs of its customers, whether the equipment is used in retail or heavy industrial applications.
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Large volume prover from the New Jersey weights and measures lab
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These professional trainings and lab tours foster an ethic of continuous improvement and allow our metrologists to return home with new ideas and plans on how to improve Vermont’s metrology program. As a prime example, training events like this one helped inform the design of the state-of-the-art Vermont Agriculture and Environmental Laboratory referenced above. Specifically, lab tours were instrumental in designing Vermont’s Weights & Measures testing rooms, workflow, and equipment needs, resulting in a highly successful facility that all Vermonters can be proud of.
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The real-world application of metrology training is the daily impact on you! We ensure that you get what you pay for. In today’s marketplace, with gas and other daily essentials such as groceries at record prices, it is imperative that consumers are protected.
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Grocery & fuel prices in Vermont as of June 2022
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Additionally, stringent standards mean there is equity in the marketplace between businesses by ensuring that one company does not operate at a competitive advantage over another.
Your Vermont Weights and Measures team works hard every day to protect us all!
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A Federal Rating Officer, 3 Years in the Making and Worth the Wait!
By Ashley Fitzgerald, Dairy Farm Specialist III
The farm-to-table journey of a half-gallon of Vermont milk comprises many stops and often ends in states other than Vermont. In fact, more than 85% of all milk produced in Vermont is shipped to and consumed in other states. Milk that moves interstate must be rated as Grade “A” and therefore must originate from farms and processing facilities that meet the sanitation requirements of the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO), a model regulatory document developed collaboratively by FDA and all 50 states. Vermont “adopts” the PMO, which means those federal sanitation standards are also managed and enforced at the state level by the Agency’s Dairy Section experts. Vermont is fortunate to have 5 dairy section employees who have received additional training and certification as US Public Rating Officers, and I am happy to say that I am one of these employees!
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The Agency's dairy section employees help ensure Vermont milk makes it successfully to grocery store shelves, within and outside of Vermont. Photo sourced from iStock Photos
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So, what does that mean, for me and for you? Well, it means that I and my Rating Officer colleagues perform specialized inspections (or ratings) on Vermont farms and processors every 24 months, and a successful outcome means that milk originating from those facilities can be sold and transported outside of Vermont. For you, it means that we help ensure there is plenty of milk available on your grocery store shelves!
Vermont farms are grouped according to their milk handler and are then randomly chosen for rating inspections. The inspections are unannounced. In addition to ratings being necessary for interstate dairy commerce, they also facilitate the opportunity for an internal “audit” of the Vermont dairy section’s record keeping and the Vermont dairy regulatory program as a whole. As part of our core responsibilities, the Vermont dairy team, including me and my Federal Rating Officer colleagues, inspects all Vermont dairy farms at least every 6 months. However, when we put on our proverbial Federal Rating Officer hats, we are each “rating” farms that we don’t routinely inspect. This ensures a “fresh” perspective during the rating inspection and creates an opportunity for the farm’s routine dairy inspector to also learn from the rating process. It is peer-to-peer professional development at its best!
In order to become a Rating Officer, I had to go through a training and audit, referred to as a standardization, that ultimately required me to evaluate 25 dairy farms in another inspector’s territory, under an FDA Milk Specialist’s watchful eye. The standardization was intense and rewarding, but the lead-up to that long-awaited event was anything but routine!
When I joined the Agency in January 2017, I knew right from the start I wanted to become a Federal Rating Officer, and my first opportunity came in November 2019. The farms were identified, and travel / scheduling logistics were finalized, but the standardization had to be cancelled at the last minute. With mixed emotions, I regrouped and set my sights on the rescheduled date in the spring of 2020, just in time for the COVID-related travel restrictions to kick in, so things were on hold again. Wedding planning, the birth of my daughter, and the ongoing pandemic restrictions further postponed my calibration through 2021, but fortunately, my colleague Jessica Waterman was able to complete the standardization process during this interval and become a Federal Rating Officer.
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Ashley with her husband, Caleb, and their daughter, Guinevere
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My time finally came when I met the FDA Milk Specialist in Rutland on a sunny Monday morning this past May to start my standardization. We completed the farm evaluations in 3 days and then it took me about a week to complete the additional off-farm requirements.
While the road to becoming a Federal Rating Officer was challenging, the longer interval I experienced allowed me to learn so much more before my standardization and in the end, served as a silver lining to the process and benefitted the outcome. I’m now much more confident in my knowledge of the PMO and have been able to successfully resolve many more challenges on farms, which has improved my ability to provide technical assistance to farmers with whom I interact. I am proud to have joined the Federal Rating Officer ranks and hope that this overview augments your understanding of how Vermont’s Federal Rating Officers, and the entire Vermont dairy team, contribute to your confidence in and enjoyment of Vermont dairy products!
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Ashley and Guinevere
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That brings us to the close of Field Notes, Summer 2022 style!
Thank you for taking the time to learn a bit more about how we maintain our expertise to serve you to the best of our abilities, collaborate with state and federal partners to ensure health and food safety for all, and how we carefully dovetail regulation with technical assistance to protect Vermonters and serve the industries and businesses on which we all depend!
If you have colleagues or friends in your professional or personal circles who you think would benefit from receiving Field Notes, please let them know they can subscribe to future editions here!
To review prior editions of Field Notes, visit the Agency's website.
And don't forget to let us know what else you want to know in 2022!
Our proverbial doors are open to your ideas and requests!
Have a great rest of the summer, Vermont, and we will see you in the fall!
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