Almost 20 years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) introduced a food safety program called Pathogen Reduction/Hazards Analysis and Critical Control Points (PR/HACCP) aimed at verifying the effectiveness of the food safety systems at meat and poultry facilities. That program, however, has at least two ongoing problems, according to a new report released today by the Consumer Federation of America, with support from the Pew Charitable Trusts. First, plants have too often failed to develop effective food safety plans, and USDA has failed to adequately identify problems in those plants, the report says. Second, plants do not face severe enough consequences for reoccurring food safety violations. The report includes six recommendations for FSIS:
Develop a better way to evaluate plants’ HACCP plans.
Require plants to identify pathogens most commonly associated with particular meat and poultry products and address them in their HACCP plans.
Establish clear procedures and repercussions for reoccurring violations.
Frequently and routinely update performance standards that are based on improving public health.
Seek authority from Congress to set and enforce performance standards for pathogen reduction.
Improve sampling programs to target riskiest facilities and products.
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.
Hilton Foods has disclosed costs of £28 million ($37 million) as part of an incident involving a recall of fish in the United States because of Listeria.
The inventory write-off
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
A unit of the Food Standard Agency (FSA) has helped seize bushmeat in England.
The National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) operation resulted in one arrest. A 51-year-old man has been
A variety of products containing cheese are being recalled in Canada because of contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.
The products are unbranded, but are all available at Sobey banner stores. Those
Nalpac is voluntarily recalling DTF Sexual Chocolate it purchased and resold because it has been found to contain sildenafil and tadalafil.
Sildenafil and tadalafil are the active ingredients in the
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is retracting the public health alert issued on April 1 for Walmart Great Value Fully Cooked Dino Shaped Chicken Breast Nuggets
Karns Foods is recalling its approximate 8-ounce packages of "Mini Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cups" because they may contain undeclared peanuts. People who have allergies to peanuts run the
