Operational procedure: Poultry carcass grade verification

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1.0 Purpose

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) inspection staff when conducting poultry carcass grade verification to verify that poultry graded in Canada meets the requirements of the Safe Food for Canadians Act and Regulations.

The guidance outlined below should be used when performing meat inspection tasks, in response to a complaint, or when a certificate of inspection is required for lots that are graded and exported.

This document is intended to be used in conjunction with CFIA guidance documents as referenced in section 3.0, reference documents.

2.0 Authorities

The inspection powers, control actions and enforcement actions authorized by the above legislation are identified and explained in the Operational guideline: Food regulatory response guidelines.

3.0 Reference documents

4.0 Definitions

Definitions are located in the documents listed below or as a defined word where it is intended to supersede the definitions within the glossary documents:

5.0 Acronyms

Acronyms are spelled out the first time they are used and are consolidated in the Food business line acronyms list.

  • QA – Quality Assurance

6.0 Operational procedure

This operational procedure provides inspection staff guidance when conducting a poultry carcass grade verification. Poultry carcasses are inspected to verify grade name application and the marking of poultry for which grades and markings are established in the Canadian Grade Compendium Volume 1 – Ovine Carcass and Poultry Carcasses Part 3.

Licence holders may apply a grade name to and use a grade name in connection with a dressed or partially dressed poultry carcass that is identified in their licence if the carcass has been graded by a grader, in addition to meeting other prescribed conditions [308(1)(b), (c), (e) and (f), SFCR]. For more information on general grades for food requirements, refer to the Grades page of the Industry Labelling Tool.

Sub-paragraph 15(1)(c)(ii) of the SFCR specifies that no person other than a grader shall grade a poultry carcass for the purposes of the Act and these Regulations. A "grader" means a person designated as a grader under subsection 13(3) of the CFIA Act for the purposes of the Act. For additional information related to the CFIA designation process, refer to Appendix 2: Procedure for requesting designation of a person as a "grader".

The conditions for grading, that must be met for a grader to grade a dressed or partially dressed poultry carcass, are outlined in section 338 of the SFCR.

The Canadian Grade Compendium Volume 1 – Ovine Carcass and Poultry Carcasses outlines the domestic poultry carcass grade requirements. The grade names for domestic poultry carcasses are Canada A, Canada Utility and Canada C. The labelling requirements associated with the grade name and stamp can be found in section 11 of the Compendium.

The Canadian Grade Compendium Volume 9 – Import Grade Requirements outlines the import grade requirements.

Where more specific procedures are required to what is provided in the standard inspection process (SIP), these will be indicated in this section.

Commodity inspection operational guidance (OG) refers the inspector to the SIP for basic guidance on the 4 inspection steps. If the commodity inspection is being conducted to support a preventive control inspection (PCI) currently underway, some or parts of the inspection steps will have already been completed.

6.1 Prepare for inspection

Refer to SIP, section 3.0, step 1 - Prepare for the inspection. In addition to the general guidance provided in SIP, the following applies.

Table 1. Recording inspection data in Digital Service Delivery Platform (DSDP)
DSDP field DSDP data field selection
Inspection trigger Choose one of the following triggers as appropriate:
  • Sample Collection Plan
  • Commodity Inspection Plan
  • Incident Response
  • Export Permission
  • Import Permission
Task type Commodity Inspection
Inspection level 1 task Perform test
Inspection level 2 task Grade verification

6.2 Conduct the inspection

Refer to SIP, section 4.0, step 2 - Conduct the inspection. In addition to the general guidance provided in SIP, the following applies.

6.2.1 Locate and determine the lots

The sampling procedure consists of selecting from the lot, at random, the designated number of sample units according to the Poultry Evaluation Grading Table found in Appendix 1.

A sample unit comprises a group of 12 graded carcasses. Where carcasses are packed in containers holding a different number of carcasses than 12, the containers are converted into units of 12 carcasses each.

Note: In some cases, such as the use of opaque bags, the grading evaluation may also include a Quality Assurance (QA) evaluation that is performed on line before packaging.

6.2.2 Grade Verification

The Poultry grading verification report CFIA/ACIA 4631 (accessible only on the Government of Canada network) is for internal use only and should be used to capture information pertaining to CFIA poultry grade verification activities.

Refer to the Canadian Grade Compendium Volume 1 – Ovine Carcass and Poultry Carcasses Part 3 and the Canadian Grade Compendium Volume 9 – Import Grade Requirements for grade requirements.

6.2.3 Determine Compliance

The acceptance and rejection numbers for grade verification is found in Appendix 1. If a non-compliance is identified, refer to SIP, sub-section 4.5, and sub-section 4.6.

A sample unit is acceptable if not more than 1 defective carcass is found from the 12 carcasses selected and examined. The sample unit is unacceptable when 2 or more defective carcasses are observed within the sample unit.

The number of units inspected shall be equal to the sample size as per the sampling plan in Appendix 1. If the number of defective (nonconforming) units found in the sample is equal to or less than the acceptance number (Ac) for the corresponding sample size, the lot shall be considered acceptable upon removal of the defective carcasses found. If the number of defective (nonconforming) units is equal to or greater than the rejection number (Re), the lot shall be considered not acceptable.

Rejection of a lot

The lot is non-compliant when one of the following is observed during a poultry grade evaluation:

  • A sample evaluation result having the number of evaluated units meeting the rejection number
  • A lot having marking deficiencies

In these cases, the entire lot will automatically indicate a failure and the lot will be held. Each held lot requires corrective measures to correct the deficiencies on the graded product and to correct the deficiencies on the grading process.

Corrective measures on graded product

When a lot is rejected, the licence holder has the option of sending the entire lot for regrading or remove any reference to a grade. Depending on the severity of the deficiencies, the rejected lot may be extended to a larger scale (for example daily product or weekly product).

Corrective measures on grading process

For any rejected lot evaluation during a grade verification for domestic market or for rejected evaluation of imported or exported poultry grading products, please refer to Sub-sections 4.5 and 4.6 of the SIP.

6.2.4 Capturing notes related to commodity inspection

For information on capturing notes relating to commodity inspections in the DSDP, refer to SIP Appendix A sub-section 5.4.1 and sub-section 3.5.1 of the DSDP SOP INS – conducting an inspection (accessible only on the Government of Canada network – RDMIS 9839405).

The Poultry grading verification report CFIA/ACIA 4631 (accessible only on the Government of Canada network) is available and can be used as a tool to assist inspectors in verifying compliance of the grade. On the "Additional Remarks" section, in addition to commenting on the markings and packaging of the poultry, other points related to product preparation and grading which impacts on the quality of the graded poultry should be recorded.

This worksheet should be saved as an RDIMS file and referenced in the "Notes" section of the document record of the inspection task record in DSDP.

6.3 Communicate the Results

Refer to SIP section 5.0, step 3 - Communicate the inspection results.

6.4 Conduct Follow-up

Refer to SIP section 6.0, step 4 - Conduct the follow-up inspection.

For general inquiries related to this operational guidance document, follow established communication channels, including submitting an electronic Request for Action Form (e-RAF) (accessible only on the Government of Canada network).

7.0 Appendices

Appendix 1: Poultry grade evaluation table – Sample size and acceptance criteria

The following table explains the number of units to evaluate for a specific lot size and the corresponding accept (Ac) and reject (Re) numbers.

Table 2: Sampling plan for all poultry except fresh turkeys
Lot size (number of carcasses) Lot size (number of units) Samples Size (number of sample units) Ac Re
24 to 1,080 24 – 90 5 1 2
1,081 to 1,800 91 – 150 8 2 3
1,801 to 3,360 151 – 280 13 3 4
3,361 to 6,000 281 – 500 20 5 6
6,001 to 14,400 501 – 1,200 32 7 8
14,401 to 38,400 1,201 – 3,200 50 10 11
38,401 to 120,000 3,201 – 10,000 80 14 15
12,001 Plus 10,000 Plus 125 21 22
Table 3: Sampling plan for fresh turkey
Lot size (number of carcasses) Lot size (number of units) Samples Size (number of sample units) Ac Re
24 to 180 2 – 15 2 1 2
181 to 300 16 – 25 3 2 3
301 to 1,080 26 – 90 5 3 4
1,081 to 1,800 91 – 150 8 5 6
1,801 to 3,360 151 – 280 13 7 8
3,361 to 6,000 281 – 500 20 10 11
6,001 to 14,400 501 – 1,200 32 14 15
14,401 Plus 1,200 Plus 50 21 22

Appendix 2: Procedure for requesting designation of a person as a "grader"

Sub-paragraph 15(1)(c)(ii) of the SFCR specifies that no person other than a grader, as designated under subsection 13(3) of the CFIA Act, shall grade a poultry carcass for the purposes of the Act and these Regulations. It is the operator's responsibility to maintain and operate the establishment so that any person who is involved in the manufacturing, preparing, storing, packaging, or labelling of a food must have the competencies and qualifications that are necessary to carry out their duties [SFCR 49 and 75].

CFIA area and regional staff may verify an operator's compliance to the regulatory requirements regarding grading activities, including the proficiency of a grader by following the inspection process described in section 6.2 of Operational procedure: Food preventive control and traceability inspection – System Verification.

Should industry request 'designation' of a person as a "grader", the procedure below should be followed:

  1. Request the establishment representative to review and complete the Application for CFIA Designation for Non-Federal External Parties (CFIA/ACIA 5780) - PDF (134 kb).
  2. The establishment emails completed form CFIA/ACIA 5780 to the CFIA contact (e.g. VIC, EG 05, IIC, etc.). This form should not be filled out manually nor should it be scanned and emailed. The form must be completed online and emailed using the 'email' button on the form (i.e. not scanned).
  3. The CFIA contact should send the request to their Area office for processing:
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