Food Safety Guidelines

The following guidelines have been established to assure the safe production of market hogs for supply to Indiana Packers Corporation.

1. PQA Plus Level Certified
   • All unit managers, supervisors and their production employees should achieve PQA level III certification within six months of the initiation of this program. 
   • Certificate must be displayed in barn or farm office.
2. Restricted Drug and Vaccine Use
   • Only legally approved FDA and USDA pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines are to be used.
   • When required, a veterinary prescription or veterinarian approved standing treatment protocol must be followed.
   • Specific product, dose, route, duration and pre-harvest removal will be posted and observed at all sites by all employees and contractors.
   • PQA guidelines for pharmaceutical handling and administration will be met by all employees and contractors.
3. Antibiotic and Drug Withdrawal Times
   • Safe, pre-harvest withdrawal times will be observed for all routes of administration (injectable, water, feed, etc.).
   • Withdrawal times shall meet MRL standards for international, domestic requirements.
   • Sulfa drugs must be excluded from feed and/or water according to manufacturer’s recommendations.
   • It is recommended no sulfa-containing drugs be used in grow/finish feed or water.
   • It is recommended Tetracycline and Chlortetracycline drugs be excluded from the feed and/or water 15 days prior to harvest.
   • Penicillin injections must not be given within 14 days of harvest.
4. Needle Usage Protocol
   Objective:  To eliminate needle contamination of pork products.
   • All injections must be given in the neck muscle ahead of the shoulder and just behind and below the ear.  Never inject in the ham, loin, or shoulder muscles.
   • Properly restrain animals when administering the product.  Use either a snare or sorting board to restrain an animal for injection.
   • If a needle becomes bent during use, it is to be immediately discarded in the approved needles receptacle.  Bent needles are not to be re-straightened.
   • Dispose of all spent needles in an approved sharps container.
   • Full sharps containers must be handled using one o the following procedures:
     1. Fill with cement and bury or incinerate; and
     2. Do not put Sharps in the trash.
   • Proper needle usage:
     1. For nursery vaccinations and treatments, it is recommended that 16 and 18 gauge X ¾” needles be used.
     2. For finisher treatments, it is recommended that only 16 gauge X 1” needles be used (unless otherwise directed by veterinary services).  We also recommend that needles used in finisher treatment should be changed once daily.  The needle is to be used that day and then discarded in the specified/approved container.  We also recommend changing the needle after 15 pigs if you are mass treating
5. Broken Needles Identification
   • Indiana Packers Corporation expects that there will never be any physical hazards in the pigs they process.  If a needle is broken off in a pig, the pig must be immediately identified and tagged.
   • Indiana Packers has achieved producer identification on broken needles.  Should broken needles become an issue, IPC will contact you for your broken needle protocol.
   • Prepare and make visual an on farm broken needle SOP for employees and contractors.
   • Call Dave Murray to discuss disposition of an affected animal.