January 30, 2008

 

FSIS sets new salmonella policies for poultry slaughter facilities

 

 

The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection has announced new policies and practises for salmonella verification sampling programme in poultry establishments.

 

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, salmonella serotypes accounted for 38.6 percent of human food borne illnesses in 2006, and the FSIS is taking action to reduce such cases.

 

The changes will include,

 

Completed verification sample set results for establishments that show inconsistency to meet salmonella performance standards will be published on the FSIS website. This will begin from young chicken establishments, as there is an increase of health concern found in their products.

 

A voluntary incentive-based program for poultry establishments that should yield significant data on attribution of human illness to FSIS-regulated products.

 

Increasing the agency's use of targeted sampling approaches and collaborative serotype and subtype data.

 

On November 16, 2007, FSIS posted the third quarter progress report on salmonella testing, which showed significant success, of selected raw poultry products.

 

Establishments are placed into three categories and they are,

 

Category 1 establishments have the lowest salmonella rates with sample set results at or below half of the current standards.

 

Category 2 establishments have sample set results above half but not exceeding the current standard for one or both of their most recent sample sets.

 

Category 3 establishments have sample sets that exceeded the current standards.

 

Broiler establishments in Category 1 are 73 percent while it is 23 percent is Category 2. This figure is up by 10 percent from the first quarter of 2007.

 

This is compared with only 35.5 percent of broiler establishments in Category 1 after the first quarter of 2006.

 

The changes are set to take effect as from March 28, 2008.