Salmonella Verification Testing Program Monthly Posting

Most Recent Posting

October 30, 2022 through October 28, 2023

FSIS posts the monthly reports on the Performance Category of Individual Raw Poultry Establishments and the Aggregate Salmonella Categorization for Raw Poultry Establishments on or about the 20th of the month. For the posting each month in Calendar Year 2022, the reference period for category assessment is:

	Month of Posting	Reference Period
	December 2022	November 28, 2021 - November 26, 2022
	January 2023	January 02, 2022 - December 31, 2022
	February 2023	January 30, 2022 - January 28, 2023
	March 2023	February 27, 2022 - February 25, 2023
	April 2023	March 27, 2022 - March 25, 2023
	May 2023	May 01, 2022 - April 29, 2023
	June 2023	May 29, 2022 - May 27, 2023
	July 2023	June 26, 2022 - June 24, 2023
	August 2023	July 31, 2022 - July 29, 2023
	September 2023	August 28, 2022 - August 26, 2023
	October 2023	October 02, 2022 - September 30, 2023
	November 2023	October 30, 2022 - October 28, 2023
	December 2023	November 27, 2022 - November 25, 2023
	January 2024	January 01, 2023 - December 30, 2023

FSIS continuously samples (up to five times per month) poultry establishments producing young chicken and turkey carcasses, and raw chicken parts, so that it can more closely monitor an establishment's process control over time. FSIS also continuously samples NRTE comminuted chicken and turkey products for Salmonella.

FSIS uses these Salmonella sampling results to assess establishment performance during a reference period of one completed 52-week moving window based on a 3-category system. Establishments at or below half of the performance standard over the previous moving window are placed in Category 1, those that meet the standard in that period are placed in Category 2, and those that fail the standard in the previous moving window are placed in Category 3.

As FSIS announced in the November 9, 2018 Federal Register, FSIS will post on its website the category status of individual establishments for pathogen reduction performance standards for Salmonella in young chicken carcasses, young turkey carcasses, raw chicken parts, and NRTE comminuted chicken and turkey products, based on FSIS verification sampling results from one 52-week window, but not to include follow-up sampling. As the Federal Register outlines, the category definitions under verification sampling are as follows:

Category 1: Establishments that have achieved 50 percent or less of the maximum allowable percent positive during the most recent completed 52-week moving window.
Category 2: Establishments that meet the maximum allowable percent positive but have results greater than 50 percent of the maximum allowable percent positive during the most recent completed 52-week moving window.
Category 3: Establishments that have exceeded the maximum allowable percent positive during the most recent completed 52-week moving window.
NA: FSIS did not collect or analyze the minimum number of samples to categorize the establishment and the establishment has not exceeded the maximum number of positives allowed under the standard.
Establishments participating in a pilot program to exclude a vaccine strain in the Salmonella categorization calculation are marked with an asterisk and can be found on the Pilot Projects: Salmonella Control Strategies.

Individual windows are defined as 52 consecutive Sunday-to-Saturday weeks. Category status is determined based on 52 weeks of data, i.e., the last completed 52-week moving window, ending on the last Saturday of the previous month.

Sampling results used in the monthly establishment category assignments are extracted from the FSIS data systems on approximately the 11th of the current month to allow at least 10 days of lab processing time for samples taken before the close of the last moving window to be included. For demonstration, data extracted on January 11, 2018 for the January web posting would include the completed moving window of samples taken through December 30, 2017.