USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has instructed inspectors at plants that produce not-ready-to-eat (NRTE) comminuted poultry products that, beginning on June 1, they are to sample these products.
The new sampling protocol, which will test for Salmonella and Campylobacter, is aimed at addressing several recent Salmonella outbreaks associated with the consumption of comminuted NRTE turkey products.
For the purposes of this project, “NRTE comminuted poultry product” is any non-breaded, non-battered raw, or otherwise NRTE poultry product that has been (1) ground; (2) mechanically separated; or (3) hand- or mechanically-deboned and further chopped, flaked, minced, or otherwise processed to reduce particle size,” FSIS said.
These products include consumer-ready products or intermediary product for further processing as NRTE product that are destined for sale as a NRTE product to consumers. Inspectors are to sample these products for Salmonella and Campylobacter.
FSIS intends to establish pathogen-reduction performance standards for Salmonella (and possibly for Campylobacter) for NRTE comminuted poultry product based on the results of this sampling project.
The FSIS Notice is available here.
