survey materials

Appendix 6

Other Survey Materials

Pre-notification Letter

[FSIS Letterhead]

Month Day, Year

Plant Manager

Plant Name

Street Address

City, State Zip

Dear (Plant Manager):

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is conducting a survey, and we are asking for your help.

The purpose of the survey is to add to our understanding of the current practices and technologies used in the meat slaughter and processing industry to control pathogens and promote food safety. The enclosed brochure provides additional information on the survey. You may recall receiving a similar survey a few years ago. This survey contains similar questions that will be used to assess food safety and technology adoption trends over time.

Your establishment is among the 750 meat slaughter and processing establishments that were randomly selected to participate in the survey. Without your response, the survey results will not properly reflect industry practices. Therefore, your help is crucial. I am requesting that you—or someone that you designate at your establishment—complete the survey.

FSIS has contracted with RTI International to develop and conduct this nationwide survey. A representative from RTI will call you soon to ask for your help and they will send you the survey to complete at your convenience.

As RTI International has done with other surveys it has conducted for Federal agencies, they will report only unidentified individual responses of this survey to FSIS. They will perform data masking techniques so that individual plants cannot be identified. The results of the survey will be reported to the public only in summary form so that individual responses or respondents cannot be identified. Those who respond to the survey will receive a summary report of the survey results.

If you have questions about the survey, please do not hesitate to contact Gary Noyes with FSIS at
(301) 504-3672 or at [email protected].

FSIS appreciates your help in this important endeavor.

Sincerely,

Administrator

Enclosure

Reminder Post Card

(Date)

Dear [Respondent Name]:

Recently, you received a survey on current practices and technologies used in the meat slaughter industry for controlling pathogens. RTI International is conducting this survey for FSIS. If you have already returned the survey, we would like to thank you. Your assistance is very much appreciated.

If you have not yet returned the survey, please complete the survey and mail it back to us using the return envelope that was included with the survey. The information that you provide will help ensure that FSIS develops regulations that are science-based and efficient and that minimize the potential economic burden on establishments such as yours.

If you have any questions, please contact me toll-free at 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx or [email protected]. Thank you again.

Sincerely,

[signature]

RTI International

Reminder E-mail

Recently, you received a survey by e-mail on current practices and technologies used in the meat slaughter industry for controlling pathogens. RTI International is conducting this survey for FSIS. If you have already completed the survey, we would like to thank you. Your assistance is very much appreciated.

If you have not yet completed the survey, we ask that you do so within the next week. The information that you provide will help ensure that FSIS develops regulations that are science-based and efficient and that minimize the potential economic burden on establishments such as yours. The log-on information for the survey is provided at the end of this e-mail.

If you have any questions, please contact me toll-free at 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx or [email protected]. Thank you again.

[Insert log-on information]

Sincerely,

RTI International

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