FSIS to Discontinue Quarterly Establishment Information Letters

In July 2024, FSIS will discontinue issuing quarterly establishment information letters that are sent to meat and poultry establishments. These letters provided comprehensive results for products sampled by FSIS at an establishment within the past 12 months. 

FSIS continues to expand data products available in the Public Health Information System (PHIS) reports and online data postings. All data available in the letters will be available in PHIS reports and public data postings starting in July.

FSIS will post guidance explaining how establishments can access the data, including steps for creating a PHIS account, in an upcoming Constituent Update. Further details about PHIS, including guides to access the system, are available on the FSIS website.

FSIS to Publish Establishment Specific NARMS Cecal Sample Results

FSIS plans to publish establishment specific sample results for enteric bacteria isolated from cecal sampling as part of the FSIS National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS). NARMS sampling, conducted by FSIS, is a non-regulatory sampling program and does not require establishments to hold products.

NARMS is an interagency, collaborative partnership with USDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and state and local public health departments for monitoring changes in antimicrobial resistance in certain enteric/intestinal bacteria.

FSIS will release this dataset in an open, non-proprietary JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format, consistent with requirements set by the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018. The JSON file containing relevant data documentation, the data set, and guides explaining how to access the file using Excel, are available on the FSIS website in the JSON Guides section.

Prior to publishing the establishment specific NARMS cecal results, FSIS is seeking comments on the sample dataset until May 17, 2024. To comment, visit Regulations.gov and follow the online instructions for submitting comments to Docket FSIS-2014-0032. Because Regulations.gov does not support the JSON file type, a Word document with a link to the sample dataset is posted on Regulations.gov and the sample data set is available on the FSIS website.

Establishments can access their data using the “Industry Sampling Results for Primary Establishment Number Detailed” report within the Public Health Information (PHIS).

FSIS to Post Quarterly Updates to Establishment-Specific Datasets

On April 5, 2024, FSIS will publicly post quarterly updates to the following establishment-specific datasets:

Establishment-specific Datasets on Laboratory Sampling

• Egg Product Sampling Data
• Raw Beef Sampling Data
• Raw Pork Products Sampling Data
• Raw Poultry Sampling Data
• Intensified Verification Testing Data
• Ready-to-Eat (RTE) Meat and Poultry Sampling Data
• Risk-based Listeria monocytogenes Sampling Data
• Siluriformes Product Sampling

As announced in the February 2, 2024 Constituent Update, FSIS is modifying the Establishment-specific Datasets on Laboratory Sampling to account for recent changes at FSIS laboratories, which have added whole genome sequencing (WGS) to predict antimicrobial resistance (AMR). WGS AMR prediction will be used for most samples, and AST (antimicrobial susceptibility testing) methodology will be maintained and used as needed. This update adds an “AST” suffix to the existing predicted AMR variable title to distinguish the results from the WGS predicted profiles and adds new variables which will have a suffix of “WGS” to represent the WGS predicted AMR profile variables.

This posting corrects an error in some of the previously posted datasets where establishments that were inactive at the time the datasets were created were excluded. The Raw Poultry Sampling Data and Raw Beef Sampling datasets contained data on active and inactive establishments. All newly released current and archived datasets contain data for any FSIS establishment with relevant sampling data since the beginning of fiscal year (FY) 2014, regardless of current operational status.

Establishment-specific Datasets on Inspection Tasks

• Livestock Humane Handling Inspection Tasks
• Poultry Good Commercial Practices Inspection Tasks

Available for Public Comment

FSIS seeks public comments on proposed rules and notices, which are viewable on the FSIS Federal Register & Rulemaking webpage. FSIS is currently seeking comments on the following:

• Until April 8, 2024: Notice of Request to Renew an Approved Information Collection: Mechanically Tenderized Beef Products
• Until May 31, 2024: Availability of Revised Guideline for Controlling Retained Water in Raw Meat and Poultry
• Until June 3, 2024: Notice of Request to Renew an Approved Information Collection: Voluntary Recalls of Meat, Poultry, and Egg Products

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 Notice 11-24 - Availability of FSIS Guideline for Retained Water

FSIS Notice 12-24 - Task Distributor Updates in the Public Health Information System

FSIS Notice 13-24 - 2024 Year-End Closing Instructions

FSIS Directive 1060.1 - Agency Surveys - Revision 1

Export Requirements Update

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

• Colombia
• Barbados
• Dominica
• Canada
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• China
• Namibia
• Benin
• Republic of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
• Mauritius
• Kiribati
• Myanmar
• Vietnam
• Turkey

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