Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 6/8/10

USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service issued a Federal Register notice with updated information about its nationwide market hog microbial baseline data collection program.

Samples will be collected for at least 12 months at establishments included in the program.

Testing will include collection of carcass sponge samples at pre-evisceration and post-chill from market hogs slaughtered in federal establishments. Only market hogs are eligible for testing. Boar or stag swine, feral swine, roaster swine, and sows are excluded from this study. The progam is designed to collect sponge samples from the belly, ham, and jowl portion of certain hog carcasses.

The program will provide baseline data on the percent positives and quantitative levels of selected foodborne pathogens and microorganisms as indicators of process control (i.e., Salmonella, generic Escherichia coli, Enterobacteriaceae, coliforms and aerobic plate counts).

The samples are non-regulatory. Therefore, FSIS will not take regulatory actions based on these results. Consequently, establishments need not hold any sampled carcasses or production lots.

The Federal Register notice can be viewed here.