USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a notice informing inspection program personnel (IPP) that FSIS will stop sampling for Salmonella sampling in raw fish in both domestic and imported products.

The final rule “Mandatory Inspection of Fish of the Order Siluriformes and Products Derived from Such Fish” (80 FR 75590; December 2, 2015) amended the Agency’s regulations to establish a mandatory inspection program for these fish and products derived from these fish. FSIS conducted exploratory sampling for Salmonella in raw fish to monitor its presence.

FSIS inspection program personnel are informed that the agency is stopping Salmonella sampling for raw fish in domestic and imported products.  After July 13, 2022, IPP will no longer receive sampling tasks for the project codes:

If any sampling tasks remain after July 13, 2022, IPP should cancel the remaining sampling tasks and select “Not collected for miscellaneous reasons” as the reason for the cancellation. 

IPP are to return any unused shipping containers and sampling supplies after July 13, 2022, including the FedEx overnight billable stamp, to the FSIS Laboratory that provided the IPP with these materials. IPP should send a request through the Public Health Information System or Outlook for a pre-addressed return FedEx ground-shipping bill. If submitting the request through Outlook,

QUESTIONS
Refer questions regarding this notice to a supervisor and if needed to the Office of Policy and Program Development by telephone at 1-800-233-3935. Refer to FSIS Directive 5620.1, using askFSIS, for additional information on submitting questions.

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