Posted August 6, 2014
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and
Inspection Service (FSIS) has released poultry-inspection rules that will give
plant operators the option of conducting their own inspections for bird defects
and feces on the processing lines, according to The New York Times article by
Ron Nixon available here.
USA Today also published an article here
and Agri-Pulse here.
The USDA released a statement available here.
Poultry companies will have to meet new requirements as a
result of the New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS), an updated “science-based
inspection system that positions food safety inspectors throughout poultry
facilities in a smarter way,” according to a USDA
statement.
The rules also enables government inspectors to concentrate
on other food-safety issues within the plant, according to The
New York Times.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the new rules “will
increase the chances of us detecting problems by placing the burden of finding
contaminates such as salmonella on the plants,” he said.
Plant operators’ participation is voluntary, but many large
poultry companies are expected to participate, according to USA
Today.
Current federal laws only require inspectors to examine
birds on the production line for visual defects, which does not determine if
the birds are safe to consume or carry pathogens such as salmonella.
Poultry facilities will also be required to perform
microbiological testing at two points in their production process to prove that
they are controlling Salmonella and Campylobacter, according to Agri-Pulse.
FSIS estimates that the NPIS will prevent nearly 5,000 Salmonella
and Campylobacter foodborne illnesses each year, according to a USDA
statement.
For more information on the final rule, please visit the
FSIS’ website here.
For more information on food safety, please visit the
National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
