FSIS to Implement STEC Sampling & Verification in Raw Beef Trimmings Beginning June 4
The Food Safety and Inspection Service confirmed that it will implement routine verification testing for six Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), in addition to E. coli O157:H7, in raw beef manufacturing trimmings. Beginning June 4, FSIS will implement routine verification testing for six additional STECs (O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, and O145) in raw beef manufacturing trimmings (domestic or imported) derived from cattle slaughtered on or after June 4, 2012.
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To allow industry time to implement any appropriate changes in food safety systems, including control procedures in their processes, FSIS said it will generally not regard raw, non-intact beef products or the components of these products found to have these pathogens as adulterated until June 4. FSIS said it will announce in a future Federal Register document the date it intends to implement routine verification testing for the specified STECs in additional raw beef products tested by FSIS for E. coli O157:H7, including ground beef.
Positive Tests for non-O157 STECs in Imports Treated the Same as O157:H7
In response to comments asking whether FSIS intended to treat imported product tested for non-O157 STEC differently from such product tested for E. coli O157:H7, FSIS said that, consistent with FSIS’s procedures for testing for E. coli O157:H7 in imported product, if a product offered for import tests positive at port of entry for non-O157 STEC in the screen test and has not been held at the import establishment, it will not be subject to recall. However, if the product is still at the import establishment, FSIS will retain the product until it is confirmed negative. If the product is confirmed positive and has been held by the establishment or retained by FSIS at the import establishment, FSIS will refuse entry of the product. If the confirmed-positive product has not been held at the import establishment, FSIS will request that the importer of record recall the product.
(See ITT’s Online Archives 11091939 for summary of November 2011 announcement by FSIS that it intended to carry out this sampling and testing program.)