FSIS to Participate in NARMS Public Meeting

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is hosting the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) public meeting Oct. 13-14, 2020. The purpose of this meeting is to present the progress that NARMS has made since the last public meeting in 2017, and to introduce the NARMS Strategic Plan: 2021-2025. As a NARMS partner agency, FSIS will moderate a session on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) updates from industry and consumer groups. FSIS will also make two presentations related to the agency’s antimicrobial resistance findings.

The public meeting will be hosted via a live webcast on October 13 from 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET and October 14 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. Advance registration is required to attend the NARMS public meeting.

To register for the virtual public meeting, please provide complete contact information for each attendee, including name, title, affiliation, address, email, and telephone number to Kelly Covington, kelly.covington@fda.hhs.gov, by October 2 at 4:00 p.m. ET. A webcast link will be emailed to attendees prior to the scheduled meeting on October 6. 

A transcript of the meeting will be made available within 30 days after the meeting. It will be accessible at https://www.regulations.gov under docket number FDA-2020-N-1764. A link to the transcript will also be available. For more information go to the public meeting webpage.

Reminder: Upcoming FSIS Public Meeting

FSIS is hosting the below public meeting next week.

• Food Safety: Consumer Outreach and Education Today and for the Future (October 6, 2020)
  • The public meeting has reached its capacity for oral comments. Interested parties can still submit written comments at http://www.regulations.gov.
  • The agenda for this meeting is posted here.

Additional information on the upcoming meeting and details on how to register can be found at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/meetings.

USDA Releases Revised HACCP and SSOP Guidance Materials

FSIS has updated its Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) guide and three generic HACCP models. The agency has also developed a new Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOP) guide. The guides and the models are intended to assist establishments in meeting regulatory requirements to produce safe and wholesome products. Additional models will be posted as they are revised.

FSIS had made the materials available to assist industry including:

• Small and very small plants that need to develop their first HACCP plan or add an additional plan to their HACCP system.
• Businesses that are seeking a federal grant of inspection to operate a meat or poultry establishment. 
• Existing establishments that need to create a new HACCP plan or that need guidance when performing a HACCP plan reassessment.

The updated guides and models reflect changes in FSIS policy and lessons learned about implementing HACCP since its inception. The materials include updated scientific references and footnotes containing explanatory guidance and links to related sources of information. Consistent with the previous models, each model includes a product description, ingredients list, production flow diagram, hazard analysis and HACCP plan.

The revised Guideline for the Preparation of HACCP Plans leads an establishment through the process of developing a HACCP plan according to seven principles and provides links to additional reference materials. Templates are provided in the guide so the establishment can capture the product-specific information as demonstrated in the guide.

The three revised generic models available now are the Swine Slaughter (traditional), New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS), and Raw Non-Intact Pork Sausage. Establishments will need to tailor information from the models to the specific circumstances of their products and production processes. Additional models will be posted as they are revised, including the following:

• Raw Ground Beef
• Beef Slaughter
• Heat Treated, Shelf Stable (Jerky)
• NSIS Swine Slaughter
• Traditional Poultry Slaughter

The new Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures Model provides an overview of the SSOP requirements, a SSOP model, and procedures for pre-operational and operational sanitation, sanitation information for establishment grounds and facilities, and sanitations forms.

FSIS published the Pathogen Reduction/Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Systems (PR/HACCP) final rule on July 25, 1996. The rule requires that all meat and poultry establishments develop and implement a system of preventive controls, known as HACCP, designed to improve the safety of their products. Along with the rule, FSIS made generic HACCP models for different meat and poultry processes available to be used as examples on how to meet the regulatory requirements. 

The revised and new materials can be found at the Small and Very Small Plant Outreach webpage.

FSIS Names Food Safety Fellows

FSIS has selected four Food Safety Fellows through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) program. The fellows are students currently working towards their Ph.D. and have an interest in improving food safety and public health. During their fellowship, they will learn how to apply their scientific and technical knowledge to inform FSIS decision making and improve the safety of the food supply. They will collaborate with FSIS scientists on projects related to the agency’s research priorities.

The four fellows are:

Darwin Bandoy, University of California at Davis. Darwin will investigate whether virulence genes and specific allelic versions drive the pathogenicity of extraintestinal Salmonella Dublin. Understanding virulence factors is important to FSIS because it may help focus our resources on those pathogens of greatest concern.

Aaron Beczkiewicz, The Ohio State University. Aaron will undertake a data analytics project to inform the design of sampling programs for microbial testing. He will develop risk factor models for Salmonella contamination using FSIS data for whole chicken carcasses.

Colette Nickodem, Texas A&M University. Colette’s project involves developing a bacteriophage treatment as a pre-harvest intervention strategy to control Salmonella in beef cattle.

Ilya Slizovskiy, University of Minnesota. Ilya will use novel experimental methods to target and enrich antimicrobial resistance genes, mobile genetic elements, and virulence factors, to characterize risk of antimicrobial resistance in microbial pathogens.

The fellowship program at FSIS is part of Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Mindy Brashears’ 2020 Vision to lead with science and to build relationships, by continually fostering FSIS’ connections to academia.

Establishment-Specific Datasets Now Available

FSIS has posted the quarterly updates to the establishment-specific datasets on the FSIS website:

• Egg Product Sampling Data
• Intensified Verification Testing Data
• Raw Beef Components Sampling Data
• Raw Beef Follow-up Sampling Data
• Raw Beef Trim Sampling Data
• Raw Ground Beef Sampling Data
• Raw Chicken Carcasses Sampling Data
• Raw Chicken Parts Sampling Data
• Raw Comminuted Chicken Sampling Data
• Raw Comminuted Turkey Sampling Data
• Raw Turkey Carcasses Sampling Data
• Raw Poultry Follow-up Sampling Data
• Ready-to-Eat (RTE) Meat and Poultry Sampling Data
• Risk-based Listeria monocytogenes Sampling Data
• Siluriformes Product Sampling Data

Data contained in the laboratory sampling results datasets on tested product from establishments are not sufficient to determine an association to human illnesses. Further epidemiologic information is needed to determine if there is an association between the non-clinical isolates and human illnesses.

Additional details can be found at https://www.fsis.usda.gov/science-data/laboratories-procedures.

FSIS Extends Comment Period on Import Volume Dataset and Data Documentation

In the Federal Register on July 14, 2016 (Docket No. FSIS-2014-0032), FSIS announced that it would consider whether to publish certain import data. FSIS has considered this and decided to publish country-level data on import volumes. Prior to publishing this dataset, FSIS is making sample datasets available. This next sample dataset and corresponding data documentation for the volume of imported meat, poultry, and egg products presented for reinspection to FSIS at port of entry can be found on the Import and Export Data web page at https://www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/import-export.

Please visit https://www.regulations.gov/ and follow the online instructions at that site for submitting comments to Docket FSIS-2014-0032 for this sample dataset and data documentation by November 2, 2020. FSIS intends to publish the final dataset on December 1, 2020. Additional details can be found in the FSIS Establishment-Specific Data Release Strategic Plan.

Policy Updates

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

FSIS Notice 49-20 - Implementation of the APM Module of the Public Health Information System

FSIS Notice 50-20 - Fiscal Year 2021 - Continuing Education Program for Public Health Veterinarians

FSIS Notice 51-20 - Eligibility Criteria and Procedures for Ordering FSIS Business Cards and Format of the Business Cards

FSIS Directive 8160.1 - Custom Exempt Review Process

Export Requirements Update

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

• China, The People’s Republic of 
• Colombia 
• Costa Rica 
• French Polynesia 
• Honduras 
• Hong Kong
• Japan 
• South Africa

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