The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is announcing its intention to redesign its E. coli O157:H7 verification testing program for beef manufacturing trimmings to make the program “more risk-based” and to run ongoing statistical prevalence estimates for E. coli O157:H7 in raw beef trimmings. The notice, published in the Federal Register Wednesday, also discusses FSIS’s plans to perform a beef carcass baseline. “FSIS seeks public comment on its plans, which have been developed in response to a 2011 audit by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) of FSIS’s protocol for N-60 sampling of beef manufacturing trimmings for E. coli O157:H7,” reads the notice. In 2010, FSIS’s sampling program came under harsh criticism from the OIG and the government auditor made a number of recommendations to the agency. The announcement also says that FSIS has made changes to its beef manufacturing trimmings program to increase both the collection rate and the likelihood that FSIS will find positive samples. The notice points out several changes, including that the agency has increased sampling through the “high prevalence season” for E. coli, which is May through October in the United States. “Because of resource constraints, however, increased sampling during the high-prevalence season will require a decrease in sampling during the low prevalence season.” The agency notes that it is likely that the changes in sampling will increase the probability of obtaining E. coli O157:H7 positive results in beef manufacturing trimmings during FSIS verification testing by a factor of about 2.5. FSIS welcomes interested stakeholders to comment on the changes. Comments may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the online instructions at that site for submitting comments.
The News Desk team at Food Safety News covers breaking developments, regulatory updates, recalls, and key topics shaping food safety today. These articles are produced collaboratively by our editorial staff.
As part of its enforcement activities, the Food and Drug Administration sends warning letters to entities under its jurisdiction. Some letters are not posted for public view until weeks or
A man has been given a suspended sentence in England for food safety offences.
Arfan Sultan, from Ilford, was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Nov. 14 following an investigation
A grocery company in New Zealand has been fined for selling recalled hummus products that may have contained Salmonella.
Foodstuffs South Island was told to pay $39,000 (U.S.
Rwanda has lifted a ban on some South African food products that was put in place in 2017 because of a Listeria outbreak that sickened more than 1,000 people.
The Food and Drug Administration uses import alerts to enforce U.S. food safety regulations for food from foreign countries. The agency updates and modifies the alerts as needed.
Recent
Prairie Farms is announcing a recall of select Prairie Farms Gallon Fat Free Milk produced at its Dubuque, IA, facility and distributed to Woodman’s stores in Illinois and Wisconsin.
Aoun brand tahineh is under recall in Canada because of contamination with Salmonella.
The recall was triggered by test results from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
The recalled tahineh was
Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends and feasting. Once the holiday meal ends, the spotlight turns to enjoying the leftovers in the days ahead. To keep those leftovers safe
