Food Safety and Inspection Service November 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents
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Use of a Non-Destructive Surface Sampling Device To Sample Domestic Beef Manufacturing Trimmings and Bench Trim
On February 1, 2023, FSIS intends to stop using the N60 excision sampling method to sample domestic beef manufacturing trimmings and bench trim for adulterant Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (E. coli) (STEC) and Salmonella. FSIS intends to replace the N60 excision sampling method with a non-destructive surface sampling method that uses a cloth manual sampling device. FSIS has found that the cloth sampling method is as effective as the N60 excision sampling method at recovering organisms in beef manufacturing trimmings. Additionally, the cloth sampling method is faster and safer for FSIS inspection program personnel (IPP) to use because it does not require IPP to use hooks or knives to collect samples. Moreover, the cloth sampling method allows FSIS to sample without destroying product, which reduces food waste.
Expansion of FSIS Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli (STEC) Testing to Additional Raw Beef Products
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing that on February 1, 2023, the Agency will expand its routine verification testing for six Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli that are adulterants (non-O157 STEC; O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, or O145), in addition to the adulterant Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7, to ground beef, bench trim, and other raw ground beef components in addition to raw beef manufacturing trimmings in official establishments. The raw ground beef components to be tested for these six non-O157 STEC, hereafter ``other raw ground beef components,'' are: head meat, cheek meat, weasand (esophagus) meat, product from advanced meat recovery (AMR) systems, partially defatted chopped beef and partially defatted beef fatty tissue, low temperature rendered lean finely textured beef, and heart meat. Currently, FSIS tests only its beef manufacturing trimmings samples for these six non- O157 STEC and E. coli O157:H7. Otherwise, all other raw beef products are tested only for E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella. FSIS also will begin testing for these non-O157 STEC in ground beef samples that it collects at retail stores and in applicable samples it collects of imported raw beef products. Additionally, FSIS is responding to comments regarding the STEC testing expansion and the costs and benefits analysis (CBA), as well as its updated STEC laboratory testing criteria for determining whether a result is positive.
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