SECTION 18.671. Unannounced Inspections

All currently certified operations and all operations in application status for certification are subject to unannounced inspections. TDA will conduct unannounced inspections pursuant to 7 CFR Part 205, §205.403 and §205.670.

(1) Operations will not incur a fee when selected by TDA for an unannounced inspection. However, if an operation expressly requests an unannounced inspection in addition to their annual routine inspection, a re-inspection fee will be incurred by the operation and the only stipulation that can be made by the certified operation is selection of a 20 day time period in which the inspection will occur.

(2) An unannounced inspection will not include prior notification of the inspector’s arrival. However, certain conditions, including but not limited to distance of travel by the TDA inspector, frequency of personnel at operation, and biosecurity issues, which may make it impossible to conduct an unannounced inspection of the operation without prior notification. In such cases, a TDA employee may contact the operation up to 4 hours prior to arriving onsite to ensure that appropriate representatives are present.

(3) The TDA inspector shall disclose to the operation the reason that the operation was chosen for the unannounced inspection prior to the start of the inspection.

(4) Criteria for conducting a risk-based unannounced inspection may include, but is not limited to:

(A) Random selection by the TDA;

(B) Previously identified and/or outstanding noncompliance issues;

(C) Investigations and/or responding to complaints;

(D) Organic and non-organic production or handling, which includes visually indistinguishable varieties or processed products;

(E) Risk of an organic product coming into contact with a prohibited substance applied to adjoining land use;

(F) Risk of an organic product or ingredient coming into contact with a prohibited substance or commingling with a nonorganic product during handling; and

(G) Complexity of operation.

(5) Unannounced inspections may fulfill the requirements for annual on-site monitoring inspections of certified organic operations, required by 7 CFR Part 205, §205.403, only if the inspector is able to conduct a full inspection of the operation as required by that section.

(6) Unannounced inspections may be limited in scope, depth, and breadth, and may cover only certain aspects of the operation, such as fields/units/parcels, facilities, products, handling activities, etc.

(7) Inspectors may conduct sampling pursuant to §18.670 of this chapter and 7 CFR Part 205, §205.670 during an unannounced inspection. Operations will not incur a fee for any samples collected by a TDA Organic Inspector unless the collection of one or more samples is expressly requested by the operation.

Source Note: The provisions of this §18.671 adopted to be effective December 7, 2017, 42 TexReg 6789