A Compulsory Specification for Processed Meat Products VC 9100 was published by the
Minister of Trade and Industry as per Government Gazette No.42628 Notice No. 1058 of 08
August 2019. This Compulsory Specification is effective from 8 October 2019.
Publication and Scope
A Compulsory Specification for Processed Meat Products VC 9100 was published by the Minister of Trade and Industry as per Government Gazette No.42628 Notice No. 1058 of 08 August 2019. This Compulsory Specification is effective from 8 October 2019. The NRCS Business Unit Food and Associated Industries will be responsible for implementation of regulatory activities and the enforcement of this VC. The scope of the compulsory specification applies to the handling, preparation, processing, packaging, refrigeration, freezing, chilling, labeling, marking and storage of heat treated and ready to eat (RTE) processed meat products covered in the scope of SANS 885, processed meats products; and it includes the microbiological and food safety related compositional requirements of these products. The classes of processed meat products are identified as heat treated and ready to eat (RTE) categorized in the respective classes and unspecified RTE products listed in clause 5.3 of SANS 885:2011, which are as follows:
a) Whole muscle, cured, heat treated products
b) Whole muscle, uncured, heat treated or partial heat treated and RTE products;
c) Comminuted, cured, heat treated products;
d) Comminuted, uncured and heat treated products;
e) Reformed, cured, heat treated;
f) Unspecified class i.e. Any other unspecified RTE processed meat products; and
g) RTE products which are not going to be cooked before consumption with the exclusion of dried and fermented processed meat products i.e. partially heat treated products and RTE e.g. SALAMI.
Registration and Approval
The industry is required to commence immediately with the registration process that is outlined in this circular in order to meet the implementation date. The approval of operators will be a continuous process over time and will be conducted in phases until all the operators have been approved as per the compulsory specification VC9100.
Registration is compulsory for all producers and should be done online on the following link:
https://preview.nrcs.org.za/business-units/foods-and-associated-industries/food-processor-form
The video demonstrating the process of registration is also attached (see below)
Download Registration Process Video.mp4
Thereafter, NRCS inspectors will conduct factory inspections to determine compliance with the requirements of the VC. Upon compliance, the processor will then be issued with an approval certificate which will be reviewed annually. The applicable fee to this registration/approval is currently R1668 as per Government Gazette No.42431 Notice no. 631 published 3rd May 2019
Inspections, Sampling and Testing
All factory inspections will be conducted on a risk based approached, bi-annually, annually and on an adhoc basis as required by clause 3.2 of V 9100.
Product testing will be conducted on a monitoring basis and mainly focus on microbiological and chemical testing as per the applicable VC &SANS. This will be done monthly and may be reviewed based on the testing data that are obtained. Sampling of products will be done 80% at processing plant level and 20% at retail level.
Payment of Levies
All Processors/Manufacturers and importers of Processed Meat Products are accountable for the payment of Government legislated levies to the Regulator as required by the VC clause 3.14. The levy negotiations with the processed meat industry are planned from 30 September to 3 October 2019 nationwide (Pretoria, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban).
Awareness Workshops
There are planned industry workshops for the month of October 2019. The purpose of these workshops is to introduce and familiarise the industry with both the requirements of the VC, SANS 885 as well as the role of the Regulator and also clarify any other technical questions.
The inspection processing and application thereof will be explained and discussed during these workshops. Therefore, all queries related to inspections will be addressed in this platform.
Any queries should be sent to the respective NRCS FAI offices as indicated on the
website https://www.nrcs.org.za/content.asp?subID=43#
