Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 9/7/11

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has issued a notice to its inspectors to watch out for circumstances that may be responsible for an unusually large proportion of salmonella-positive samples from a single type of ready-to-eat pork product.

Pork barbecue with vinegar and pepper-based sauce is the source of 23 percent of salmonella-positive samples that the agency reviewed for the period from 2005 to 2010. The contamination has not caused any known illnesses.

Exactly what part of the dish is contaminating it with salmonella isn’t clear. FSIS notes that it “may have come from the addition of contaminated ingredients (such as the pepper) to the sauce, or from cross-contamination of the product or sauce in the post lethality processing environment.” During processing of these products, the pork was cooked first, and the barbecue sauce was added after the cooking step. The lack of a lethality treatment for the sauce or its ingredients could result in contamination of the final product.

Inspectors were told to plan an awareness meeting on the subject, and to ensure that the plants they inspect have a HACCP plan that enables them to determine whether the establishment had a way of evaluating the safety of the ingredients added after the lethality step.

If inspectors are uncertain as to whether a hazard exists, they are to contact the district manager through their supervisory chain to discuss whether further actions are needed.

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