The purpose of this chapter is to establish requirements for issuing sanitary certificates to food processing plants and to milk processing plants.

A sanitary certificate is a notarized statement by a responsible food safety official certifying that a food processing plant or milk processing plant has been inspected and approved by this department and has been issued a license indicating the same.

The requirements for obtaining a sanitary certificate are:

(1) All applicants must be currently licensed as either a food processing or milk processing plant in Washington state with the department of agriculture under RCW 69.07.040 or 15.36.051.

(2) Sanitary certificate will be issued only to cover products listed on the license application or otherwise approved by the department of agriculture.

(3) Products for certification must not be under embargo or litigation by the department of agriculture, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or other recognized public health authorities.

(4) An applicant must not be more than ninety days in arrears in paying for previous sanitary certificates issued.

(5) Any applicant that requests sanitary certificates must have been inspected by the department of agriculture within the inspection frequency guidelines established by Washington state department of agriculture and must be in substantial compliance with applicable food safety and dairy laws and rules.

(6) The applicant must provide the department with a declaration in a form acceptable to the department.

(7) Sanitary certificates will be in a form approved by the department of agriculture that specifies the plant location where the products were processed and that the plant was inspected and found in substantial compliance with food safety or dairy laws and rules. No statements will be made to imply that a product was inspected and passed.

(8) Sanitary certificates will be issued in the order the requests are received. However advance notice of three business days is required to ensure that sanitary certificates will be sent by the date needed.

(9) The department will deliver sanitary certificate by U.S. mail service. Requests for overnight mail or fax will be allowed, but must be paid for by requester.

(10) Milk processing plants that request sanitary certificates for Grade A products must be in compliance with the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO), or Condensed and Dry Milk Ordinance (DMO), as applicable.