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

The USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service has discontinued testing for E. coli O157:H7 in domestic and imported read-to-eat dry and semi-dry fermented sausages and fully cooked meat patties, the agency said in a notice.

FSIS has discontinued the testing because an analysis of the data from ready-to-eat (RTE) sampling programs showed that since 1994 there has not been an E. coli O157:H7 positive test result in these products, out of more than 10,000 samples.

“Therefore, the agency has determined that the effectiveness of the testing program for E. coli O157:H7 in dry/semi-dry fermented sausages and fully cooked meat patties for verifying process control for these products should be reassessed,” the agency said.

The notice did note that while the March 2011 recall of Lebanon bologna was linked to an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7, the contamination was likely due to problems with the establishment’s lack of scientific supporting documentation for the critical limits of the process, and such problems are not normally detected by FSIS pathogen sampling programs.

Sampling resources previously used for the E. coli O157:H7 sampling program for the indicated RTE products will be diverted to increase testing for E. coli O157:H7 in raw products that are more likely to cause a public health risk.

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