UPDATE: Additional cooking instructions provided by FSIS after this story was posted. The 6.2 billion servings of mechanically tenderized beef roasts and steaks consumed annually by Americans might be a little safer because of labeling requirements that take effect today, just ahead of the summer grilling season. They’ve been coming
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Food Safety Regulatory Forecast for 2016
It’s impossible to say what will be the big food safety story of 2016. The ultimate unpredictable is what foodborne outbreaks will dominate the headlines and how they may impact policy decisions. But we’ve done our best to list the regulatory activities to keep on your radar for the coming
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Letter From the Editor: Mechanically Tenderized Steaks
We’ve let the news spoil several holidays and many a Friday night. Christmas 2009 comes to mind, probably because it was the first. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was chasing down a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 cases just hours before the holiday. We wanted the
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Mechanically Tenderized Beef Label Goes Into Effect May 2016
The finalized labeling requirements for mechanically tenderized beef were released Wednesday and will go into effect in May 2016. Under the new rule, raw or partially cooked beef products must bear labels that state that they have been mechanically, blade or needle tenderized. The labels must also include cooking instructions
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USDA May Move Mechanically Tenderized Beef Labeling to 2016
While appearing before the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said USDA will work to introduce labels for mechanically tenderized beef within the next two years. New labeling laws are implemented in two-year increments so that new label rules made in 2013 or 2014 will be
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Failure to Finalize Rules Delays Labels on Mechanically Tenderized Beef
For at least another three years, consumers shopping for steak and other whole cuts of beef will continue to be left in the dark about beef treated with mechanical tenderization, a processing technique that softens up meat but can drive potentially harmful pathogens below the surface. The U.S. Department of
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DeLauro Urges OMB to Finalize Two Food Rules
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) is urging the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to finalize two pending food safety rules. DeLauro wrote to OMB director Shaun Donovan Monday, expressing her concern that if the mechanically tenderized beef rule and a rule regarding added solutions in meat and poultry products are
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Will Mechanically Tenderized Beef Labeling Be Pushed Back to 2018?
Long-planned efforts to place a label on mechanically tenderized beef may be delayed another two years — until 2018 — if they are not finalized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by the end of this year. For more than a
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Canada Now Requiring Labels for Mechanically Tenderized Beef
Canada’s requirement that all mechanically tenderized beef (MTB) be labeled as such and include instructions for safe cooking came into effect on Aug. 21. The goal of identifying MTB and including safe cooking instructions on the label is to provide Canadians with the knowledge of what they are buying and
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IAFP Interview: Waldrop Discusses Mechanically Tenderized Beef
Christopher Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America, spoke with Food Safety News at the 2014 Conference of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP).
The discussion covered the food safety risks associated with mechanically tenderized beef, as well as some of Waldrop’s concerns
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