FSIS Announces June 4 As New Implementation Date for Non-O157:H7 Testing
Thursday, February 16, 2012(American Meat Institute)
The
Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has
announced June 4 as the new implementation date
for sampling of six additional STEC serogroups
(O26, O45, O103, O111, O121 and
O145).
Accordingly, beginning the week of June 4, 2012, rather than on March 5, FSIS will begin scheduling verification tasks for non-O157 STEC in raw beef manufacturing trimmings. FSIS will collect excision (N60) samples for testing raw beef manufacturing trimmings derived from cattle slaughtered on or after June 4, 2012, for O157:H7 plus O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, and O145.
For production lots of raw beef
manufacturing trimmings not accompanied by
documentation showing the date of slaughter of
the cattle from which the beef was derived,
FSIS will sample the production lot only
for O157-STEC.
FSIS also noted that it has
contacted foreign governments already approved
for the export of raw beef to the United States
and informed them that FSIS would make a
limited amount of reagents used in the FSIS
laboratory method for non-O157 STECs available
to a foreign government if that government
wanted to conduct a comparative analysis of its
method and methods used with test kits assessed
by FSIS. Although these comparative analyses
are not a necessary precondition for FSIS to
begin verification testing of raw beef
manufacturing trimmings on June 4, 2012, FSIS
believes that the results of such comparative
analyses could be useful.
To view the advance copy
of the FSIS announcement submitted to the
Office of Federal Register, go to http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FRPubs/2010-0023N.pdf.
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