The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has reissued instructions to inspection program personnel (IPP) on how to identify and verify that poultry processors are removing trimmable inflammatory tissues associated with “woody breast” or “white striping” conditions.
Upon issuance of the FSIS notice, public health veterinarians; inspectors-in-charge, front line supervisors and supervisory consumer safety inspectors, as appropriate, are to correlate with inspection program personal on how to identify and verify that poultry establishments are removing trimmable inflammatory tissues that may be associated with woody breast or white striping.
Inflammatory tissues are adulterated because since they are unwholesome and unfit for human food thus establishments are required to remove them by trimming, as required for other trim defects. Beast muscle changes that do not exhibit active inflammatory signs, for example “white striping” only, are considered a quality issue and do not necessarily require removal by trimming.
The FSIS instructions include photos of inflammatory tissue in chicken breasts to further aid in the identification of inflammation that requires trimming to assist IPP in their decision making.
FSIS reiterated that breast muscle changes that do not exhibit active inflammatory signs — for example, white striping only — are considered a quality issue and do not necessarily require removal by trimming.
The FSIS Notice is available via the link below:
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/32db1df8-14c9-49ab-b69d-1cf2fec860aa/42-18.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
