Posted August 6, 2014
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has released poultry-inspection rules that will give plant operators the option of conducting their own inspections for bird defects and feces on the processing lines, according to The New York Times article by Ron Nixon available here. USA Today also published an article hereand Agri-Pulse here. The USDA released a statement available here.
Poultry companies will have to meet new requirements as a result of the New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS), an updated “science-based inspection system that positions food safety inspectors throughout poultry facilities in a smarter way,” according to a USDA statement.
The rules also enables government inspectors to concentrate on other food-safety issues within the plant, according to The New York Times.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the new rules “will increase the chances of us detecting problems by placing the burden of finding contaminates such as salmonella on the plants,” he said.
Plant operators’ participation is voluntary, but many large poultry companies are expected to participate, according to USA Today.
Current federal laws only require inspectors to examine birds on the production line for visual defects, which does not determine if the birds are safe to consume or carry pathogens such as salmonella.
Poultry facilities will also be required to perform microbiological testing at two points in their production process to prove that they are controlling Salmonella and Campylobacter, according to Agri-Pulse.
FSIS estimates that the NPIS will prevent nearly 5,000 Salmonellaand Campylobacter foodborne illnesses each year, according to a USDA statement.
For more information on the final rule, please visit the FSIS’ website here.
For more information on food safety, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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