performance standards for the production of certain meat and poultry products 15pages the food safety and inspection service fsis is proposing to amend the federal meat and poultry inspection regulations by converting the current regulations governing the production of cooked beef products uncured meat patties and certain poultry products into performance standards. the proposed performance standards spell out the objective level of performance establishments must meet during their operations in order to produce safe products but allow the use of plant-specific processing procedures other than the procedures prescribed in the current regulations. performance standards set forth requirements in terms of what is to be achieved by a given regulatory requirement. they represent a shift in focus from command-and-control regulations in that they specify the ends to be achieved producing safe meat and poultry products but not the means to achieve those ends. the command-and-control provisions in the current regulations prescribe the means for producing safe meat and poultry products specifying step-by-ste procedures to be followed by establishments. all of the command-and-control provision in the current regulations meet the proposed performance standards. fsis proposes to maintain the current provisions in the regulations as examples of how an establishment might comply with the proposed performance standards safe harbours . therefore establishments would not be required to change any current practices in response to this proposed rule. the specific categories of products affected follow cooked beef roast beef and cooked corned beef fully cooked partially cooked and char-marked uncured meat patties and certain fully and partially cooked poultry products. any establishment producing these products and choosing to develo and use procedures different from those provided in the safe-harbour example would be required to maintain on file a documented process schedule that has been approved by a process authority for safety and efficacy as required by the performance standard. the process schedule would include control monitoring validation and corrective action activities to be performed by the establishment