Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 10/14/15


USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has launched a pilot program it says is designed to clarify and improve testing procedures for pathogens inside slaughterhouses.

FSIS stressed that the goal of the program is not to increase the overall testing rate, but to provide additional guidance to Public Health Veterinarians (PHVs) about conditions that could spark selected forms of testing of plant residue. The agency has released a list of specific conditions that should spark residue screen testing on a “primary emphasis basis,” FSIS reported in a news release.

The program is not designed to replace standard procedures listed in earlier FSIS directives, and initially will involve slaughterhouses where PHVs are screening a high percentage of suspect and retained carcasses. Pilot program training will begin in Dairy Cow and Bob Veal slaughter classes and is expected to be conducted for up to three months.

The new measures stem from recently released results of an FSIS survey of PHVs that indicated that some of the established testing procedures might not be as clear as intended when it comes to in-plant screening tests of animal carcass residue.

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