Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 3/18/19

Mindy Brashears, USDA's deputy undersecretary for food safety, promised consumer advocates on Friday that the department is taking "aggressive" action to control salmonella outbreaks, following major incidents last year.

As MA readers know, Brashears' nomination for undersecretary was bogged down for months in the Senate's confirmation backlog. At the end of January, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue sidestepped the chamber and appointed Brashears to the deputy post (which doesn't require Senate sign-off).

Now she's moving quickly to put her stamp on food safety issues under the department's jurisdiction, your host reports. That includes her promise Friday to finalize a controversial hog slaughter inspection rule in 2019 and to debut new salmonella testing standards after last year's outbreaks — most notably, JBS Tolleson's recall of more than 12 million pounds of raw beef linked to salmonella that sickened more than 300 people.

No timeline change for new produce water rules: The FDA on Friday said it is sticking to its previously announced timeline for overhauling produce water safety requirements, despite increased pressure for speedier action after two major E. coli outbreaks last year were linked to romaine lettuce, our Helena Bottemiller Evich reported.