USDA Reminds Constituents of Resources During National Hurricane Preparedness Week

May 5 to May 11, 2019, is National Hurricane Preparedness Week, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reminds rural communities, farmers and ranchers, families and small businesses of assistance it can provide should they be impacted by severe weather this hurricane season. The 2019 Atlantic hurricane season begins on June 1.

In support of the Department’s hurricane preparedness and relief efforts, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) provides information to the public before and after disasters to ensure that consumers take necessary steps before, during, and after a power outage to reduce food waste and minimize the risk of foodborne illness. FSIS offers tips for keeping frozen and refrigerated food safe and A Consumer's Guide to Food Safety: Severe Storms and Hurricanes brochure that can be downloaded and printed for reference at home. Consumers with questions can contact the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-674-6854. Owners of meat and poultry producing businesses who have questions or concerns about how hurricanes could impact their operations may contact the FSIS Small Plant Help Desk by phone at 1-877-FSIS-HELP (1-877-374-7435), by email at infosource@usda.gov, or 24/7 online at: www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/compliance-guidance/small-very-small-plant-guidance/small-plant-help-desk.

For more information on other resources that USDA provides, please visit https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2019/05/09/usda-encourages-producers-rural-communities-prepare-hurricane.

FSIS Expands PHIS Export Component

FSIS began implementing the Public Health Information System (PHIS) Export Component on June 29, 2018, with a limited number of countries. FSIS is gradually expanding the PHIS export component to additional countries. On May 20, 2019, the second group of countries, territories, and dependencies (Phase 2) will be added to the PHIS export component.

Phase 2 countries, territories, and dependencies: Angola, Antarctica, Aruba, Bhutan, Botswana, Bouvet Island, Brunei, Christmas Island, Comoros, Eritrea, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, French Southern and Antarctic Islands, Greenland, Guernsey, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Isle of Man, Jersey, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, and Vietnam.

Information about this effort and the export component is available on the FSIS website at: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/import-export/phis-components. Please continue to monitor this website for any upcoming information. 

FSIS would like to remind all parties doing business in PHIS are required to have electronic Authentication Level 2, which is managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. You can register online and find the steps to complete this process at: https://www.eauth.usda.gov.

If you are new to PHIS, you must be added to the contacts page by your FSIS inspector or have your PHIS establishment administrator give and approve your export role.  This information is available in our user guide, “PHIS Industry User Guide”, on our website.

For export policy questions, please go to: https://askfsis.custhelp.com.  For technical questions concerning the XML schema development, please contact the FSIS Service Desk at 800-473-9135, select prompt 1, followed by prompt 3. Other questions concerning the PHIS export functionality can be submitted to PHISTechnicalQA@usda.gov.

FSIS Posts Updated Dataset on Imports

On May 15, 2019, FSIS will update the publicly posted dataset on import refusals for products regulated by FSIS. Federal law requires every commercial shipment of imported meat, poultry, and egg products to be inspected prior to the products entering U.S. commerce. FSIS inspects each shipment to verify labeling, proper certification, general condition, any signs of tampering, and to identify product adulterated by transportation damage. FSIS also performs additional activities on a random and/or for-cause basis, such as physical product examination and laboratory sampling for pathogens and chemical residues.

Any product that does not meet FSIS requirements is refused entry, and the importer has up to 45 days (30 days for egg products) to have the product destroyed for use as human food, re-exported/returned to the foreign country, converted to animal food, or brought into compliance with FSIS requirements, if applicable (e.g. relabeled, remarked, replacement certificate). 

This dataset is updated each month and contains each shipment with product that was refused entry. For more information, please visit https://www.fsis.usda.gov/science-data/data-sets-visualizations.

National Residue Program Results Now Available

FSIS is announcing the availability of the United States National Residue Program (NRP) for Meat, Poultry, and Egg Products sampling results for fiscal year (FY) 2018. The publication is the latest version of the “Red Book,” which outlines the results of the residue analysis for the various sampling plans for FY 2018. The publication describes the results of the FY 2018 NRP for domestic and imported products. Posting of the sampling results is done to provide transparency on U.S. residue sampling of meat, poultry and egg products.

In FY 2018, FSIS Inspection Program Personnel (IPP) collected 7,908 residue samples, under the domestic scheduled sampling program, and reported a 0.3% violation rate. Of the 172,792 Kidney Inhibition Swab (KIS™) tests conducted on suspect animals (suspect based on herd history or antemortem or post-mortem inspection findings) by FSIS, in FY2018, 3,845 samples were submitted to FSIS field laboratories for further analysis.

In FY 2018, 11 analytical methods were used by FSIS that collectively detects approximately 250 different chemical residues, including veterinary drugs, pesticides, and environmental contaminants to analyze both domestic and import samples collected by the agency. Any samples found to contain violative residues were considered adulterated, then condemned, and prevented from going into commerce. The findings from the National Residue Program demonstrate that animals presented to slaughter are part of a healthy and residue free population.

The report is available at: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/science-data/data-sets-visualizations/chemical-residues-and-contaminants.

Export Requirements Updates

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

• Australia
• Chile
• Columbia
• Cuba
• Curacao
• Honduras
• Hong Kong
• Japan
• Korea, Republic of
• New Caledonia
• Peru
• South Africa
• Turkey

Complete information can be found at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/import-export.

Policy Update

FSIS notices and directives on public health and regulatory issues are available at: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/policy/directives-notices. The following policy update was recently issued:

Notice 13-19 - Non-Compliant Logos Appearing on Shipping Containers of Product Exported From Mexico
​Notice 14-19 - 2019 Pay Raise and Retroactive Pay