The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced that it will host a meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection focused on veal safety in January. It has almost been a year since the committee last met.

The two-day public meeting will review and discuss strengthening agency verification activities pertaining to veal and categorizing FSIS regulations as public health regulations. The meetings will be held on Jan. 16 and 17, 2013, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Registration will begin on-site at 8:30 a.m. each day.

“FSIS test results show that veal trimmings and ground beef produced from veal have a higher percentage of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli than trimmings and ground beef produced from other cattle classes,” the agency noted in a recent constituent update. “FSIS is seeking feedback from NACMPI on improvements the agency can make to its verification activities of sanitary dressing and interventions and its compliance guidance in addressing veal slaughter operations. FSIS is also seeking feedback from NACMPI on outreach strategies for communicating with the veal industry.”

The agency has also “revised its criteria for identifying regulations that are most closely related to public health outcomes and is seeking input from NACMPI on the criteria and feedback on the proposed approach.”

The meetings will take place in the first floor auditorium of the Patriot Plaza III building, located at 355 E St., SW, Washington, DC 20024. Additional details and the meeting agenda will be accessible at the NACMPI website here.

For meeting information, contact Sally Fernandez at (202) 690-6524 or via e-mail at Sally.Fernandez@fsis.usda.gov.

FSIS welcomes comments through Jan. 12, 2013, on the topics discussed at the NACMPI public meeting. Comments may be submitted via e-mail to NACMPI@fsis.usda.gov or by mail to National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection, USDA, FSIS, 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Mail Stop 3778, Washington, DC 20250. Comments may also be submitted via fax at (202) 690-6519.