July 7, 2016
 

US tightens meat-safety rules, cuts down foodborne illnesses

 

 

The US has seen a 12% drop in foodborne illnesses associated with meat, poultry and processed egg products from 2009 to 2015 due to significant updates to its food safety system since the 1950s, the US Department of Agriculture said.

 

"The United States has the strongest food safety system in the world, and over the past seven years it has grown even stronger. We're better now at keeping unsafe food out of commerce", said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

 

"Over the course of this administration, we have tightened our regulatory requirements for the meat and poultry industry, enhanced consumer engagement around safe food-handling practices, and made smart changes to our own operations, ultimately moving the needle on the number of foodborne illness cases attributed to products that we regulate", he added.

 

USDA plays a role in ensuring the safety of virtually all foods produced and eaten in America through its agency, Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which is charged with ensuring America's supply of meat, poultry and processed egg products is safe and correctly labeled and packaged.

 

Among the top food-safety changes that FSIS has made since 2009 is the zero-tolerance policy for raw beef products that contain E. coli O26, O103, O45, O111, O121 and O145, collectively known as the "Big Six" strains of shiga-toxin producing E. coli, or STEC. These strains were previously considered to be a rare public health concern and not given the same illegal and unsafe status as O157:H7, which was the only strain considered illegal to be sold in the US.

 

Mechanically tenderised meat

 

The others reforms in the food safety system include:

 

 -- Requiring meat companies, starting this summer, to disclose on packages of beef steak and other whole cuts if a product has been "mechanically tenderised," or if the meat was pierced with needles or small blades to break up tissue and make it tenderer. The blades or needles can introduce pathogens from the surface of the beef to the interior, making proper cooking very important. Mechanically tenderised products look the same as the meat that has not been treated this way, so without disclosure on the label, consumers may not know about this higher food-safety risk. 

 

-- The finalisation in February this year of the first-ever pathogen-reduction standards for poultry parts, like breasts and wings. FSIS implemented performance standards for whole chickens in 1996 but has since learned that salmonella levels increase as chicken is further processed into parts. Poultry parts like breast represent 80% of the chicken available for purchase by Americans consumers. By creating a standard for chicken parts, and by performing regulatory testing at a point closer to the final product, FSIS can greatly reduce consumer exposure to salmonella and campylobacter. These new standards are expected to prevent 50,000 cases of foodborne illness annually.

 

-- Modernising poultry food safety inspections, which requires for the first time that all poultry facilities create a plan to prevent contamination with salmonella and campylobacter, rather than addressing contamination after it occurs. Under this update, poultry companies now have to collect samples at two points on their production line and have them tested to show control of enteric pathogens, which is done in addition to USDA's own improved testing strategy in poultry plants.

 

-- Adoption of the "test and hold" policy, which requires, starting in 2012, meat and poultry companies to hold all products undergoing laboratory analysis until the agency's microbial and chemical tests for harmful hazards are fully completed. This policy will significantly reduce consumer exposure to unsafe meat products, and it could have prevented 44 recalls of unsafe foods between 2007 and 2009 if it had been in place at the time.