Component 2: Enhanced Establishment Process Control Monitoring and FSIS Verification
To ensure that poultry slaughter establishments are effectively controlling Salmonella throughout their operations, FSIS may propose to modify its current regulations to prescribe enhanced establishment monitoring procedures, including revised locations for multipoint sampling and use of a statistical approach to process control.
The second component of this proposed framework builds on HACCP, FSIS’ prevention-based approach to food safety. To ensure pathogen control throughout slaughter and processing operations, FSIS may modify the existing requirements for indicator organism testing for process control and establish additional parameters to better define the required analysis of the data. As part of the proposal, establishments may be required to test for indicator organisms (e.g., aerobic plate count [APC], Enterobacteriaceae). FSIS would consider production volume when determining the frequency that establishments must collect samples.
FSIS is considering the following modifications to the regulations related to preventing contamination throughout establishment operations:
Changes in location for multipoint sampling: FSIS may propose requiring that the pre-chill location at which establishments must conduct sampling for indicator organisms should be at re-hang. The requirement to sample at post-chill would remain unchanged. Specifying that establishments will sample at re-hang would standardize the paired microbial data generated by establishments and enable FSIS to improve instructions to FSIS in-plant personnel on how to verify establishments’ process control.
Use of statistical process control: FSIS is also considering requiring that establishments use a standardized statistical approach to process control. Requiring establishments to use the same statistical process-control method will standardize the microbial data definition of process control at a particular establishment and ensure that establishments generate and monitor data that lead to supportable results. A standard definition of process control would also enable FSIS in-plant personnel to identify and take consistent action if an establishment fails to identify or respond to loss of process control.
