Poultry processing plants that do not meet Salmonella control performance standards will have to conduct new follow-up sampling procedures beginning early next year, according to a notice from the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
In a Dec. 16 notice, FSIS announced the new follow-up protocol for testing, referred
Continue Reading Followup tests begin Jan. 13 at poultry plants failing standards
Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, Under Secretary of Food Safety for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wrote a letter to Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) last week regarding DeLauro’s concerns over a reportedly problematic computer network used by USDA meat inspectors. The letter came as a response to an open letter DeLauro wrote
Continue Reading USDA's Hagen Addresses Rep. DeLauro on Inspector IT Network
This is reprinted from the Food & Water Watch blog. I am supposed to be on vacation this week. I have been pulling weeds from my vegetable garden – not using Round Up or Agent Orange or Napalm. Pulling weeds can be cathartic, but an article that appeared in
Continue Reading Time to Clean House at FSIS
The story of a two-day computer system failure within the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this month has been exaggerated by The New York Times and does not accurately represent the state of meat inspection during system downtime, according to the inspection administrator for the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection
Continue Reading USDA: New York Times Article Misrepresented IT Malfunction
A conversation with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service Administrator Al Almanza on the agency’s recently-launched Public Health Information System, which centralizes plant inspection data and makes it accessible in real time.
Q: How is the Public Health Information System (PHIS) an advance over the old system?
A: This is
Continue Reading Q&A With Al Almanza: FSIS Redesigns Data System for Public Health
