The American Meat Institute is urging USDA to act on AMI's previous request to implement a policy that would require companies to control product tested by the Food Safety and Inspection Service until the test results are known.

In a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, AMI President and CEO J. Patrick Boyle stated that more than 80 percent of the recalls due to the presence of E. coli O157:H7 and all recalls due to the presence of Listeria monocytogenes during 2009 could have been prevented if the product tested for adulterants by either the establishment or FSIS had not entered commerce until test results were available.

In 2005, AMI, along with several other organizations and with assistance and encouragement from FSIS, mailed to every small and very small federally inspected establishment a best practices document encouraging them to control tested product until the results are known.

"We hope you will join the industry in supporting a policy that product tested by FSIS, subject to company lotting and control procedures, not be allowed to enter, or be used in product that would enter, commerce until the test results become available," Boyle wrote in the letter.

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