Agency of Agriculture briefing covers division work, HPAI testing and food‑processing capacity

Eby Florey, director of food safety and consumer protection at the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, told a legislative committee the agency's food-safety division has 44 staff and oversees meat inspection, animal health, weights and measures, ag products and maple, and dairy programs.

"Whether you live in Vermont or you're visiting this beautiful state, we impact you every single day," Florey said, describing weights and measures work that verifies fuel pumps, scales and retail scanners and a Randolph lab that certifies hydrometers used by maple producers.

Florey told the committee the division is working on multiple fronts related to the current highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) concerns and dairy testing. She said the agency has collected about 50 dairy samples so far and all have tested negative. The state is conducting sampling under a USDA-funded program to test dairy farms, she said, and federal sequencing is being used to track viral strains.

On milk sampling logistics, Florey said the agency chose not to take samples from some on-truck, high-tech sampling ports to avoid contaminating operational milk samples used for processing tests. Instead, she said, state samplers take representative samples from a milk‑house sampling port and that USDA has allowed the method given the state's sampling frequency. "We made the decision as a state that we didn't want to interfere with potentially contaminating that sample and risk an entire truckload of milk not being allowed to be sampled and being accepted at a plant," Florey said.

Florey said some milk haulers and cooperatives initially declined to collect samples because of concerns about driver time and sample handling; the agency secured funding and is conducting sampling itself to preserve chain-of-custody and traceback. "We know who sampled it, and we have traceability," she said.

Florey also described program work on produce safety under the Food Safety Modernization Act, noting the state's Randolph lab can perform required irrigation-water testing and that the agency is offering an opt-in collection service that coordinates sample collection with dairy inspectors' monthly routes.

On meat and poultry processing, Florey said the agency added two state‑inspected facilities in the past year and helped three existing facilities transition to the Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS) program, which allows state‑inspected businesses to sell products out of state. She said Julie Boyver, the section chief for inspection, expects up to seven businesses to express interest in 2025, with three to five in a serious development bracket and three the agency believes could be operational in the next six months. Florey also cited existing USDA-regulated numbers: four USDA livestock slaughter/processing establishments, four USDA poultry slaughter/processing establishments, and nine USDA meat and poultry processing establishments.

Florey addressed other agency concerns raised by lawmakers, including maple producers' complaints that sap-hauling trucks can damage town roads, and questions about vehicle permitting and ownership that implicate the Agency of Transportation. She said the agency is coordinating with other state agencies and with federal partners including USDA and FDA on technical and training issues.

Florey recommended additional outreach to farmers on biosecurity and said the agency planned more communications and training resources. She told the committee the agency would send a Working Lands program impact report by Feb. 1 and offered to bring section chiefs back for more detailed briefings on specific programs.

The committee did not take formal votes on the items covered in the briefing; members asked follow-up questions about numbers of facilities and program details that Florey offered to provide by email or in a future session.