USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) this week issued a directive incorporating into one document all instructions issued to inspection program personnel regarding Salmonella and Campylobacter testing for raw meat and poultry products. This directive does not include sampling instructions for steers or heifers, cows or bulls, ground chicken, ground turkey, and market hog product classes.
FSIS is sampling and testing ground or comminuted chicken and turkey products for Salmonella and Campylobacter and has included instructions for those products in separate notices. As it has been announced in the Federal Register, FSIS intends to develop new performance standards (Salmonella and Campylobacter) for not ready-to-eat ground or comminuted chicken and turkey products.
The complete directive with guidance and instructions for inspection program personnel is available here.
