Food Safety and Inspection Service February 27, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing changes in how it uses the results from its Salmonella verification sampling program for meat and poultry establishments to enhance public health protection. The Agency is also changing how it reports these results. These actions follow an April 2003 FSIS Federal Register Notice asking for public comment on whether and how Agency policy could be improved. This Notice responds to the comments received and presents the Agency's views on the issues raised in the 2003 Notice. FSIS will begin adding results from individual Salmonella verification sample tests to reports the Agency regularly makes to meat and poultry establishments that have asked to be informed of various test results. These Salmonella sample results will be sent to establishments as soon as they become available. FSIS will begin posting quarterly nationwide data for Salmonella, presented by product class, on the Agency Web site. Moreover, the Agency will assess each completed Salmonella sample set in light of either existing regulatory standards or recently- published baseline study results, as appropriate. FSIS expects to take follow-up action, which may include scheduling of another sample set or assessing the design and execution of the food safety system, based on how a plant's performance compares to the existing regulatory standard or nationwide baseline results and to the presence of serotypes of Salmonella that are common causes of human illness. To further encourage industry process control efforts, the Agency is providing a new compliance guideline containing information that FSIS has found to be relevant to control of Salmonella, particularly for poultry. FSIS intends to monitor closely the percent positive in verification samples month-by-month over the course of a full calendar year, beginning in 2006. After one year FSIS will evaluate these data, reassess how it reports Salmonella results for each class of products, and consider making additional changes in how it reports and publishes results.