designed to extend or further interpret existing regulations; rather, they are designed to send the user back to the regulations so he/she can become familiar with the requirements as well as the flexibility they permit. The generic models are not designed to present new or alternativ methods of producing and processing meat and poultry products. That is also left to others with an interest in doing so FSIS envisioned that the generic models might be used in the following way: Suppose a HACCI team leader of a three-person haCCP team in a very small establishment attended a training course, but the others on his/her team were not able to do so. Suppose the HaCCP training course met all the requirements of 417.7 but did not prons and answers, access to follow-up or ide participants with much in the w take away materials"like workbooks, practical questic resources, etc, which the Research Triangle Institute(RTi needs assessment indicated were so important to these establishments. The trained hacCp team leader returns to the establishment and begins the process of attempting to develop haCCp plans for the company's products and processes. He/she is quite confident that he/she has grasped the material presented in the training course and begins to work with this team immediately, while the concepts are fresh in his/her First he/she has the rest of the team review the Canadian video and the guidebook from FSiS so that all members of his team have a basic level of information The team members begin their work, and as they proceed, some questions arise as to whether what they have developed is appropriate. This is the point when FSIS expects the team to pick up the appropriate generic model and get a sense of whether they are on the right track. They should be able to determine whether the forms that they have developed, while different from the various ones in the generic models and not the same as what other companies use, are acceptable because they include the required information. They will also be able to discover what are some pical food safety hazards that are reasonably likely to occur, as explicitly defined in 417. 2, and how to think through the problems that these hazards represent for their own products. They can see how critical limits might arise from existing regulatory requirements like the ones for rapid chilling of poultry products. They can also see that in the absence of settled regulator requirements, there may be several sources of scientific expertise, and they can choose to make a conservative decision to provide a good margin of safety. They can find out the essential differences between monitoring and verification and have a basis for making their choices about erification activities and their frequencies. FSIS believes that these are useful, beneficial and worthwhile functions for which its generic models can be used FSIS is publishing these updated revisions of the generic models, beginning with the Guidebook and the Generic Model for Raw, Ground Product, because a large backlog of requests exists for these two documents. FSiS intends to publish revisions of all the generic models no later than September 30, 1999. Moreover, as a result of public consultation, it may publish an additional revision of some of these models, but given the backlog and the impending HACCP implementation date, we considered it important to get a version of these documents out now We hope that these documents are helpful2 designed to extend or further interpret existing regulations; rather, they are designed to send the user back to the regulations so he/she can become familiar with the requirements as well as the flexibility they permit. The generic models are not designed to present new or alternative methods of producing and processing meat and poultry products. That is also left to others with an interest in doing so. FSIS envisioned that the generic models might be used in the following way: Suppose a HACCP team leader of a three-person HACCP team in a very small establishment attended a training course, but the others on his/her team were not able to do so. Suppose the HACCP training course met all the requirements of 417.7 but did not provide participants with much in the way of "take away materials" like workbooks, practical questions and answers, access to follow-up resources, etc., which the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) needs assessment indicated were so important to these establishments. The trained HACCP team leader returns to the establishment and begins the process of attempting to develop HACCP plans for the company's products and processes. He/she is quite confident that he/she has grasped the material presented in the training course and begins to work with this team immediately, while the concepts are fresh in his/her mind. First, he/she has the rest of the team review the Canadian video and the Guidebook from FSIS so that all members of his team have a basic level of information. The team members begin their work, and as they proceed, some questions arise as to whether what they have developed is appropriate. This is the point when FSIS expects the team to pick up the appropriate generic model and get a sense of whether they are on the right track. They should be able to determine whether the forms that they have developed, while different from the various ones in the generic models and not the same as what other companies use, are acceptable because they include the required information. They will also be able to discover what are some typical food safety hazards that are reasonably likely to occur, as explicitly defined in 417.2, and how to think through the problems that these hazards represent for their own products. They can see how critical limits might arise from existing regulatory requirements like the ones for rapid chilling of poultry products. They can also see that in the absence of settled regulatory requirements, there may be several sources of scientific expertise, and they can choose to make a conservative decision to provide a good margin of safety. They can find out the essential differences between monitoring and verification and have a basis for making their choices about verification activities and their frequencies. FSIS believes that these are useful, beneficial and worthwhile functions for which its generic models can be used. FSIS is publishing these updated revisions of the generic models, beginning with the Guidebook and the Generic Model for Raw, Ground Product, because a large backlog of requests exists for these two documents. FSIS intends to publish revisions of all the generic models no later than September 30, 1999. Moreover, as a result of public consultation, it may publish an additional revision of some of these models, but given the backlog and the impending HACCP implementation date, we considered it important to get a version of these documents out now. We hope that these documents are helpful