FSIS Withdraws Proposed Salmonella Framework for Raw Poultry Products 

As announced in the April 24, 2025, Constituent Update special alert, FSIS is withdrawing its proposed rule and determination titled “Salmonella Framework for Raw Poultry Products,” published on August 7, 2024, to further assess its approach for addressing Salmonella illnesses associated with poultry products. The agency determined that additional consideration is needed in light of the feedback received during the public comment period, which closed on January 17, 2025. Based on the input received from stakeholders, FSIS will evaluate whether it should update the current poultry Salmonella performance standards. View the full notice in the Federal Register. 

FSIS Publishes Article on PFAS Sampling Results 

On April 24, 2025, FSIS published an article, titled “A Survey of the Levels of 16 per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Meat, Chicken, and Siluriformes Fish, 2019 to 2023,” in the peer-reviewed journal Food Protection Trends. 

The article describes results from FSIS’ exploratory sampling program that analyzes samples for 16 different per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), including perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonate. PFAS are a class of persistent organic environmental contaminants. FSIS first implemented testing for PFAS residues in fiscal year 2020. FSIS found that PFAS compounds are rarely detected in meat, poultry, and farm raised catfish. Wild-caught domestic catfish were frequently shown to contain at least one PFAS compound (48%), though at lower levels compared to other surveys of freshwater fish in the United States. FSIS announced the initiation and expansion of this exploratory sampling program in the August 30, 2019, and September 25, 2020, editions of the Constituent Update. 

Reminder: FSIS Posted Industry Testing Instructions for Philippines PHIS Export Onboarding

As announced in the February 14, 2025, Constituent Update, the Philippines will be onboarded into FSIS’ Public Health Information System (PHIS) export module on May 19, 2025. As a reminder, to ease preparation and ensure a successful industry testing period, FSIS has provided industry users with testing instructions for export requirements unique to the Philippines. These instructions can be found on the Industry Testing Instructions: Philippines PHIS Export webpage, or by navigating to the PHIS components page, under the heading “Export,” then “Information for Industry,” and subsequently under “Constituent Updates.”

Industry users are encouraged to use the Industry Test Environment to test application submittals for export to the Philippines prior to implementation. The Philippines was added to the Industry Test Environment on February 17, 2025, so that industry partners can begin testing.

For further guidance on PHIS export and enrollment, please refer to the following user guides: 

• PHIS Industry User Guide 
• Editing 9060 Records Quick Reference Guide 
• PHIS Quick Reference Guide for Corporate and Establishment Management 

Please contact internationalcoordination@usda.gov with any questions regarding these changes. Technical questions can be directed to PHISTechnicalQA@usda.gov. 

FSIS Posts Updated Quarterly Humane Handling Datasets 

Today, the quarterly humane handling inspection datasets were updated on the FSIS website. The datasets include: (1) the number of administrative enforcement actions taken, (2) the number of humane handling verification tasks performed, (3) the number of humane handling verification tasks that resulted in a noncompliance record (NR), and (4) the number of hours spent observing and verifying the humane treatment of livestock. This posting contains the most recent four quarters of data by district, HACCP size, and quarter. 

FSIS Posts Quarterly Sampling Data

FSIS has updated the following quarterly sampling data sets: 

• Quarterly Sampling Results: The quarterly sampling report was updated to include results through the second quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2025. Quarterly, FSIS calculates prevalence, volume weighted percent positive, or percent positive calculations for microbial pathogens in FSIS regulated products that are currently sampled through existing sampling projects using the prior 12 months of sampling data. 
• Quarterly Sampling Reports for Salmonella Serotype Information: The quarterly sampling report for Salmonella serotype information was updated to include results through the first quarter of FY2025. This post includes quarterly Salmonella serotype data for Salmonella isolates collected from FSIS product categories. 

Policy Update

FSIS notices and directives on public health and regulatory issues are available on the FSIS Policy webpage. The following policy update was recently issued:

FSIS Directive 9000.2 - Inspection and Export Certification of Livestock Casings

Export Requirements Update

The Library of Export Requirements has been updated for products for the following:

• Curacao
• Colombia
• Guatemala
• Solomon Islands
• Ecuador
• Qatar
• Peru
• Iraq
• Azerbaijan
• Hong Kong
• St. Lucia
• Turkey
• Korea
• Japan
• Costa Rica
• Nicaragua
• El Salvador
• Taiwan
• European Union
• Vietnam

Complete information can be found at the FSIS Import & Export Library.