FSIS Announces Increased Drug Testing for Meat and Poultry Products
The Food Safety and Inspection Service said it will launch a new approach later this summer to its testing to protect the public from exposure to harmful levels of chemical residues in meat, poultry, and egg products. The change will allow it to test for more chemical compounds from each sample, making it easier to identify and evaluate illegal drug residues more effectively and efficiently, it said. It said the new method also will conserve resources and provide useful and reliable results.
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The change will allow FSIS to screen for chemical compounds such as antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and growth promoters. In the past, FSIS would have collected 300 samples from 300 cows and looked for just one chemical at a time. Under the new system, one sample may be tested for as many as 55 pesticide chemicals, 9 kinds of antibiotics, various metals, and eventually more than 50 other chemicals, it said. FSIS is also increasing the annual number of samples per slaughter class from 300 to 800, it said.
FSIS is inviting comments on the announcement, which is tentatively to be published in the July 6 Federal Register. The new testing regimen is expected to take effect 30 days after the Federal Register notice is published.