USDA 

- United States Department of Agriculture 

Food Safety and 

Inspection Service 

Alameda District 

620 Central Avenue, 

Bldg. 2C 

Alameda, CA 94SOI 

Phone: (SIO} 769-S712 

Fax: (SIO) 337-SOSI 

January 17,2014 

(b) (6) 

Rancho Feeding Corporation 

Establislunent 527 M 

1522 Petaluma Blvd. North 

Petaluma, California 94952 

CERTIFIED RETURN 

RECEIPT REQUESTED 

Dear [IIIII: 

e-mail: (b) (6) 

We are in receipt of your response provided electronically to the Alameda District 

Office on January 15, 2014, responding to the Notice of Suspension initiated at your

facility on January 14, 2014. This action was taken in accordance with Title 9 Code 

of Federal Regulations, Rules of Practice, Part 500.3(a)(l), because your 

establislunent produced and shipped adulterated and misbranded products. 

Specifically, your establislunent produced and shipped adulterated products into 

commerce due to your failure to present the products for ante mortem and post 

mortem inspection, as required by 21 U.S.C. 603(a) and 21 U.S.C. 604 of the 

Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA), and the regulations promulgated thereunder. 

As such, these products cannot enter commerce because they have not been 

inspected and found to be not adulterated and capable for use as human food as 

required under 21 U.S.C. 604 of the FMIA. In addition, the products were 

misbranded pursuant to 21 U.S.C. 601 (n)(1) in that the labels represented that the 

products had been inspected and passed, when, in fact, they had not been inspected 

and passed. 

fter a thorough review and evaluation of your written response submitted on 

anuary 15,2014, to the Notice of Suspension (NOS), we have found your response 

o be inadequate to address the noncompliance identified in the NOS and cannot 

llow inspection service to resume at this time. There are several concerns that 

equire further information and/or clarification. 

1. In Item #I of your response, you indicated that your establislunent "will 

segregate any animals observed by company personnel during unloading, 

moving or other activities related to the live animals, which are observed to 

have any obvious pathology or injury ... " Please clarify which areas/pens 

you will be placing the segregated animals in. 

You provided "Unloading Observation Procedure" that discusses the 

procedures during unloading only. In Item #1 of your response, you indicate 

that animals will be segregated " ... during unloading, moving or other 

activities ... " Please clarify if you have written procedures for when your 

establislunent segregates animals during moving or other activities. 

A

J

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An Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer Page I ofJ 
Please clarify how you will ensure that employees who are responsible for 

observing for "obvious pathology or injury" and segregating the animals at 

receiving will conduct procedures as written, such as any training that will 

be conducted for these employees. 

2. Furthermore, in Item # 1, you indicated that "when such identification of 

animals is done and they are segregated for ante-mortem inspection, the pen 

card will have a specific notation made on it regarding which animal was 

seen to exhibit what specific condition or pathology identified by Rancho 

personnel. " You provided an example of the pen cards your establishment 

will be completing when conducting segregation of animals at receiving. 

Please clarify where on the pen card your personnel will document the 

"specific notation" on what condition the animal is exhibiting. 

3. FSIS requests the establishment institute a procedure for communicating 

estimated time and date of arrival of animals. 

4. Please clarify what your procedures are for separating and identifying 

animals that have received ante mortem inspection, from animals who have 

not yet received ante mortem inspection. 

5. In Item #2, you indicate that "a red colored tag" will be applied to animals 

identified by FSIS as suspect. Please clarify if the red colored tag will have 

an identifier, such as a number designation, in order for your establishment 

to track the red colored tags. Please provide an example of the red colored 

tag your establishment will be using. 

Furthermore, you provided a "Suspect Post-Mortem Procedure" form in 

which you will document the "Carcass ID". Please clarify what carcass 

identification number you will be recording for the "Carcass ID" on the 

form. 

You also provided a "Suspect Post-Mortem Procedure" program in which 

you indicate that if these procedures have not been completed, you will 

"apply corrective actions and document to the corrective actions log." Your 

"Suspect Post-Mortem Procedure" form does not include an area for 

documenting corrective actions. Please clarify where you will be 

documenting corrective actions if your "Suspect Post-Mortem Procedure" is 

not being implemented. 

6. In your "Suspect Post-Mortem Procedure" program you indicate that you 

will "visually observe FSIS employee applying full inspection to the head, 

viscera and carcass" and "visually observe P.H. V. performing re-inspection 

An Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer Page 2 of3 
of carcass and viscera." FSIS objects to entries that conftrm that USDA has 

completed adequate post mortem procedures. 

7. In your submittal, you provided a HACCP CotTective Action fonn. Please 

clarify how this form relates to your corrective actions submitted and 

response to the NOS. 

8. Please describe your procedures and policy for saving market heads, 

including your criteria on how you will determine if market heads are saved. 

Please clarify how you will be maintaining unique identification of each 

head and viscera so that they correspond to its specific carcass. Please 

explain how your establishment will document inventory control of your 

market heads. 

9. Additionally, we request that the head rack be situated in a location visible 

to the inspector at all times. 

The Alameda District personnel are available to review your submittal(s) and respond 

to all questions. If you have any questions, please call the Alameda District Office at 

(510) 769- 5712. 

Sincerely, 

Frank Gillis 

Deputy District Manager 

cc: 

Y. Sharma, OM 

A.Amin, DDM 

V. Felix DDM 

(b) (?)(C) 

USDA IIC, Est. 527 M 

An Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer Page 3 of3 
Food Safety and 

Inspection Service 

Alameda District 

620 Central Avenue, 

Bldg. 2C 

Alameda, CA 94501 

Phone: (510) 769-5712 

Fax: (510) 337-5081 

USDA 

iiiiiiii United States Department of AgricuHure 

Januaty 22, 2014 

(b) (6) 

Rancho Feeding Cmporation 

Establishment 527 M 

1522 Petaluma Blvd. North 

Petaluma, Califomia 94952 

AMENDED 

Dear~: 

We are in receipt of your response provided electronically to the Alameda District 

Office on Januruy 15, 2014, Januruy 18, 2014, Januaty 20, 2014, and January 21, 

2014, responding to the Notice of Suspension initiated at your facility on January 

14, 2014. This action was taken in accordance with Title 9 Code of Federal 

Regulations, Rules of Practice, Prut 500.3(a)(1), because your establishment 

produced and shipped adulterated and Inisbranded products. Specifically, your 

establishment produced and shipped adulterated products into commerce due to 

your failure to present the products for ante m01tem and post m01tem inspection, as 

required by 21 U.S. C. 603(a) and 21 U.S. C. 604 of the Federal Meat Inspection Act 

(FMIA), and the regulations promulgated thereunder. As such, these products 

cannot enter commerce because they have not been inspected and found to be not 

adulterated and capable for use as human food as required under 21 U.S.C. 604 of 

the FMIA. In addition, the products were misbranded pursuant to 21 U.S.C. 601 

(n)(1) in that the labels represented that the products had been inspected and passed, 

when, in fact, they had not been inspected and passed. 

After a thorough review and evaluation of your written responses subinitted to the 

Notice of Suspension (NOS), we have found your response to be inadequate to 

address the noncompliance identified in the NOS and cannot allow inspection 

service to resume at this time. There are several concems that require fmt her 

infonnation and/or clru·ification. 

1. On Januruy 15, 2014, FSIS personnel observed two bovine carcasses in the 

carcass cooler with cooler tag #437 and #438. During records review, FSIS 

also observed on your establishment's kill sheet for cattle slaughtered on 

Januruy 9, 2014, you had identified, the srune two carcasses with cooler tag 

#437 and #438 were mru·ked with the letter "e" indicating cancer eye cattle. 

Please explain why these two cru·casses identified as having cancer eye ru·e 

hanging in the cooler with other carcasses and are ready to be shipped into 

commerce. 

CERTIFIED RETURN 

RECEIPT REQUESTED 

e-mail: (b) (6) 

An Equal Opportunity Provider and Employee Page 1 of4 
An Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer Page 2 of 4

2. FSIS determined that your establishment failed to present cattle produced on 

January 8, 2014, which were likely affected with epithelioma of the eye 

(cancer eye), a condemnable condition pursuant to Title 9 CFR 311.12, for 

required ante-mortem inspection and post-mortem inspection. These 

failures to present are evidenced by the fact that two cattle heads, which 

were found in commerce, were still intact, had skin still attached, and had no 

incisions for the four pairs of lymph nodes on the head, which normally are 

incised for inspection by FSIS personnel. In addition, there was no 

denaturant or USDA mark of condemnation on the heads. In light of these 

findings, please explain your intention for future purchasing of diseased

animals particularly cancer eye animals. 

3. Your establishment has not provided a mechanism to communicate the

estimated time and date of arrival of animals to allow inspection personnel 

the opportunity to observe the unloading of animals in order to verify your 

“Unloading and Animal Handling procedure” and “Individual Animal 

Tracking Procedure”.

4. It is still unclear how your establishment plans to maintain proper 

identification for the carcass, head, viscera, and other parts such as feet of 

animals, once the back tags, ear tags and other identifiable information have 

been placed into the “plastic bag” and before the Cooler Tag is applied. 

Please clarify how you will maintain identification of these animals 

throughout the process. Also, please indicate where you will keep the plastic 

bag that contains the tag and if it will be affixed to the carcass, head, etc.

5. Please clarify if your establishment still maintains pens which are 

considered off premises. If so, please clarify where the off premise pens are 

located. Please clarify if your establishment will be unloading live animals 

in off premise pens and if these animals will be identified on the Individual 

Animal Tracking Procedure log. Please clarify what procedures you have in 

place to allow for inspection personnel to verify the animals that are

unloaded into off premise pens. 

6. Your establishment has requested that for Dead on Arrivals (DOAs), FSIS 

issue a Condemnation Certificate:

a) Please clarify if DOAs will be unloaded from the trucks to off premise 

pens. If they are unloaded into the off premise pens, please provide your 

procedures for presenting the DOAs to inspection personnel.

b) Please clarify when and how you will notify FSIS of DOAs which occur 

outside of operating hours.
An Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer Page 3 of 4

c) If DOA or Dead in the Pens (DIP) are in off premises pens, please 

clarify if your establishment will be requesting a Condemn Certificate 

from FSIS.

d) Please clarify if your establishment engages in collecting dead animals 

from the farm. If so, please provide procedures on how your 

establishment will dispose of those animals.

7. For DOAs, DIPs and animals condemned during Ante-Mortem, please 

provide additional information on how your establishment will ensure that 

the animals or parts thereof do not enter the food chain. Please provide the 

procedures including the chemicals your establishment is using to ensure 

adequate denaturing and proper disposal of DOAs, DIPs and animals 

condemned during Ante-Mortem.

8. Please clarify how your establishment will maintain the buyer and seller 

information for each animal received for inspection personnel to verify this 

information per Title 9 CFR 320.1(b)(1)(iv). This information is not 

captured on your establishment’s new “Individual Animal Tracking 

Procedure” or the pen cards provided. FSIS is requesting clarification on 

where you will be documenting the buyer and seller information for each 

animal received.

9. Please identify who is responsible for ensuring that the corrective actions 

and proffered programs you provided will be adequately implemented. 

Please clarify who will be the plant contact person for FSIS for ensuring 

implementation of these procedures.

The Alameda District personnel are available to review your submittal(s) and respond 

to all questions. If you have any questions, please call the Alameda District Office at 

(510) 769- 5712.

Sincerely,

/S/ Abdalla Amin

For

Frank Gillis

Deputy District Manager

cc:

Y. Sharma, DM

A. Amin, DDM
An Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer Page 4 of 4

V. Felix, DDM 

(b) (7)(C)
USDA 

iiiiii United States Department of Agriculture 

January 22, 2014 

(b) (6) 

Rancho Feeding Corporation 

Establishment 527 M 

1522 Petaluma Blvd. North 

Petaluma, California 94952 

Dear 

We are in receipt of your response provided electronically to the Alameda District 

Office on January 15, 2014, January 18, 2014, January 20, 2014, and January 21 , 

2014, responding to the Notice of Suspension initiated at your facility on January 

14, 2014. Tllis action was taken in accordance with Title 9 Code ofFederal 

Regulations, Rules of Practice, Part 500.3(a)(l), because your establishment 

produced and shipped adulterated and misbranded products. Specifically, your 

establishment produced and sllipped adulterated products into commerce due to 

your failure to present the products for ante mortem and post mortem inspection, as 

required by 21 U.S.C. 603(a) and 21 U.S.C. 604 ofthe Federal Meat Inspection Act 

(FMIA), and the regulations promulgated thereunder. As such, these products 

cannot enter commerce because they have not been inspected and found to be not 

adulterated and capable for use as human food as required under 21 U.S.C. 604 of 

the FMIA. In addition, the products were misbranded pursuant to 21 U.S.C. 601 

(n)(l) in that the labels represented that the products had been inspected and passed, 

when, in fact, they had not been inspected and passed. 

After a thorough review and evaluation of your written responses submitted to the 

Notice of Suspension (NOS), we have found your response to be inadequate to 

address the noncompliance identified in the NOS and cannot allow inspection 

service to resume at tills time. There are several concerns that require further 

information and/or clarification. 

1. Yom establishment has not provided a mechanism to communicate the 

estimated time and date of arrival of animals to allow inspection personnel 

the opportunity to observe the unloading of animals in order to verify your 

" Unloading and Animal Handling procedure" and "Individual Animal 

Tracking Procedure" . 

2. It is still unclear bow your establishment plans to maintain proper 

identification for the carcass, head, viscera, and other parts such as feet of 

animals, once the back tags, ear tags and other identifiable information have 

been placed into the "plastic bag" and before the Cooler Tag is applied. 

ODI(IJI: 

CERTIFIED RETURN 

RECEIPT REQUESTED 

e-mail: (b)(6) 

An Equal Opponunity Provider and Employer Page 1 of3 

Food Safety and 

Inspection Service 

Alameda District 

620 Central Avenue. 

Bldg. 2C 

Alameda, CA 9450! 

Phone: (51 0) 769-5712 

Fax: (510) 337-5081 
Please clarify how you will maintain identification of these animals 

throughout the process. Also, please indicate where you will keep the plastic 

bag that contains the tag and if it will be affixed to the carcass, head, etc. 

3. Please clarify if your establishment still maintains pens which are 

considered off premises. If so, please clarify where the off premise pens are 

located. Please clarify if your establishment will be unloading live animals 

in off premise pens and if these animals will be identified on the Individual 

Animal Tracking Procedure log. Please clarify what procedures you have in 

place to allow for inspection personnel to verify the animals that are 

unloaded into off premise pens. 

4. Your establishment has requested that for Dead on Arrivals (DOAs), FSIS 

issue a Condemnation Certificate: 

a) Please clarify if DO As will be unloaded from the trucks to off premise 

pens. If they are unloaded into the off premise pens, please provide your 

procedures for presenting the DOAs to inspection personnel. 

b) Please clarify when and how you will notify FSIS ofDOAs which occur 

outside of operating hours. 

c) If DOA or Dead in the Pens (DIP) are in off premises pens, please 

clarify if yqur establishment will be requesting a Condemn Certificate 

from FSIS. 

d) Please clarify if your establishment engages in collecting dead animals 

from the farm. If so, please provide procedures on how your 

establishment will dispose of those animals. 

5. For DOAs, DIPs and animals condemned during Ante-Mortem, please 

provide additional information on how your establishment will ensure that 

the animals or parts thereof do not enter the food chain. Please provide the 

procedures including the chemicals your establishment is using to ensure 

adequate denaturing and proper disposal of DO As, DIPs and animals 

condemned during Ante-Mortem. 

6. Please clarify how your establishment will maintain the buyer and seller 

information for each animal received for inspection personnel to verify this 

information per Title 9 CFR 320.l(b)(l)(iv). This information is not 

captured on your establishment's new "Individual Animal Tracking 

Procedure" or the pen cards provided. FSIS is requesting clarification on 

where you will be documenting the buyer and seller information for each 

animal received. 

An Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer Page 2 of3 
7. Please identify who is responsible for ensuring that the corrective actions 

and proffered programs you provided will be adequately implemented. 

Please clarify who will be the plant contact person for FSIS for ensuring 

implementation of these procedures. 

The Alameda District personnel are available to review your submittal(s) and respond 

to all questions. If you have any questions, please call the Alameda District Office at 

(510) 769-5712. 

Sincerely, 

;;;;/ 

Frank Gillis 

Deputy District Manager 

cc: 

Y. Sbam1a, DM 

A. Amin, DDM 

V. Felix DDM 

(b) (?)(C) 

USDA IlC, Est. 527 M 

An Equal Opportunity Provider ami Employer Page 3 of3