Poultry processing plants
that do not meet Salmonella control performance standards will have to conduct
new follow-up sampling procedures beginning early next year, according to a
notice from the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
In a Dec. 16 notice, FSIS announced the new follow-up protocol
for testing, referred to as sampling by the government, will take
effect Jan. 13, 2017. The current performance standards for Salmonella and
Campylobacter in not-ready-to-eat comminuted chicken and turkey products,
including raw chicken parts, have been in effect since Feb. 11, this year.
The current allowable
percentage positive rate for carcasses is 9.8 percent for young chicken and
7.1. percent for turkey during any completed 52-week moving window over the
past three months.
FSIS has instructed its
inspection program personnel (IPP) at poultry operations for young chickens and
turkeys on the new procedures. Beginning on the start date next year, if
Salmonella levels are exceeded, the poultry plants will be required to schedule
carcass follow-up testing as soon as possible.
IPP staff are to inform
plant management of the failure to meet the standards and conduct follow-up
sampling when assigned by the Public Health Information System (PHIS). Currently
the follow-up sampling will focus on carcasses only. Further instructions could
expand the program’s target in the future.
The official notice says it
is possible a poultry plant might fail during “consecutive moving windows,” but
sampling will normally focus only on the “initial failure in a series.” IPP
staff are not to “attempt to formally categorize an establishment by tracking
their own testing results” since the FSIS Office of Data Integration and Food
Protection (ODIFP) will be responsible for “performing this analysis and
reporting.”
IPP staff will be
responsible for providing the plant with a “sampling alert message” with
details on the sampling that will occur. They also will meet with plant
management.
ODIFP will conduct the
follow-up testing, which is a largely automated process. It does rely on IPP
staff collecting the samples, with at leat one per shift suggested.
Source: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2016/02/0032.xml
