MEAT+POULTRY - January 2015 - 14

WA S H I N G T O N

Regulatory heads up for 2015
Every year, the US Dept. of Agriculture's Food Safety and
Inspection Service notifies the meat and poultry industry
what its top priorities will be for the coming year. Here's a
look at what the agency's most important goals and issues
will be during 2015.
A top goal for USDA this year is reducing the number
of fooodborne Salmonella illnesses associated with
FSIS-regulated meat, poultry and processed egg products.
By Sept. 30, FSIS wants to reduce illnesses to 357,500
cases, from a 2007-2009 baseline
of 414,000 illnesses. This is the
latest goal in the agency's ongoing
Salmonella Action Plan.
The USDA also wants to create
new economic opportunities
this year through farming and
developing new markets for
agricultural products.
FSIS also is disclosing plans
for sampling in meat and poultry
plants during the upcoming year.
The agency-published plan is a
means of making the industry
more aware of how sampling
The USDA also activities are carried out, as well as
wants to create what the agency feels should be on
the industry's radar.
new economic
The plan covers two major
areas - microbiological and
opportunities
chemical residue sampling
this year
in domestic plants, imported
through
products and in-commerce
facilities. A major priority for the
farming and
developing new agency will be the start of a new
exploratory sampling project of
markets for
raw pork products for Salmonella
results. These results may be
agricultural
used in the future to establish
products.
new performance standards for
Salmonella in pork products.
During 2015, the FSIS sampling report is going to focus
on the number of samples it is planning to analyze, rather
than on the number of samples the agency is planning to
take. This results from the FSIS Public Health Information
System. PHIS allows the agency to adjust the number of
samples scheduled on a monthly basis, in order to better
target the number of samples collected and analyzed.

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This year, the agency wants to make sure food-safety
inspection deals with current and new risks; maximize
industry compliance with food-safety policies; help
the public improve food-handling practices; improve
collaboration among stakeholders to prevent foodborne
illness; use science to understand new trends in foodborne
illnesses; implement effective policies against current and
new risks; better train FSIS employees; and use its PHIS
system to better protect public health.
There is also going to be a delay in requirements for
verification activities as part of the final rule on poultry
inspection modernization. The rule requires poultry
slaughter plants to develop, implement and maintain written
procedures to prevent contamination of carcasses and
poultry parts by enteric pathogens and fecal contamination
throughout the slaughter and dressing process. Plants
will have to demonstrate this control via microbiological
sampling and testing to make sure carcasses with visible
fecal contamination don't enter the chiller.
USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Food Safety and FSIS
Administrator Alfred Almanza said the agency will also be
working with the poultry industry as processors implement
mandatory and voluntary aspects of the new regulation.
This year, USDA will likely need to move in a whole
new direction concerning the Country-of-Origin-Labeling
(COOL) rule. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said
he doesn't think the regulation can be repaired in a way
that would allow it to conform to the COOL law enacted by
Congress. It means the rule will probably be scrapped, and
the Obama Administration will go back to Congress and
ask the lawmakers to come up with something that could
be developed that would prevent Canada and Mexico from
leveling retaliatory tariffs against the US. The World Trade
Organization ruled the US can't label meat products in a
way resulting in negative treatment of meat imported from
America's two neighbors.
FSIS will also continue work on its Shiga toxin-producing
E. coli STEC testing program. The agency has been
analyzing the costs of testing, as well as expanding testing to
ground beef and bench trim. The economic analysis will be
sent to the Federal Register for publication and will accept
comments from the public and industry on the plan.
During 2015, the agency also hopes to make final a
proposed rule for labeling mechanically-tenderized beef
products. In addition to labeling, FSIS is planning to add
cooking instructions for mechanically-tenderized beef.
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MEAT+POULTRY - January 2015

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