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On December 30, 2024, FSIS published a Federal Register notice announcing the 2025 fees it will charge meat, poultry, and egg products establishments, importers, and exporters for providing voluntary, overtime, and holiday inspection, identification, certification, and laboratory services. Additionally, FSIS announced a change to the fee FSIS assesses to exporters that choose to apply for export certificates electronically through the export component of the agency's Public Health Information System. The rate changes were applied on January 12, 2025.
To more accurately sample poultry establishments based on volume, FSIS is modifying its Salmonella sampling task assignment procedures to set sampling frequency based on monthly production volume (MPV) rather than daily production volume.
Currently, FSIS may sample establishments that produce a larger amount of product in a single day more frequently than establishments that produce smaller volumes over many production days, even when the establishment with lower daily volume produces more product overall. Poultry establishments that produce at least 1,000 pounds (lbs.) of product per day are currently eligible for verification sampling (81 FR 7289), and FSIS collects four or five samples per month (once per week) from the largest volume establishments to verify establishments are meeting Salmonella performance standards in raw poultry products (81 FR 7285).
The agency will continue to sample at this general frequency except under the new policy, establishments producing at least 1,000 lbs. per month are eligible for sampling, with those producing 1,000-20,000 lbs./month sampled randomly approximately twice per year.
FSIS is seeking comments on these changes. Please submit comments no later than February 16, 2025, to regulations.gov.
FSIS is announcing updates to its guidance for controlling retained water in meat and poultry products. The Revised Guideline for Controlling Retained Water in Raw Meat and Poultry published in the Federal Register on January 17, 2025. The agency also responded to comments on the guidance.
FSIS has posted on its website the fiscal year (FY) 2025 Annual Sampling Plan. Sampling of product for microbiological contaminants or chemical residues is a key FSIS inspection verification activity, and each annual sampling plan identifies all current FSIS sampling programs. This continues FSIS’ efforts to show the breadth of microbiological and chemical residue sampling data that will be generated to inform the agency’s science-based and data-driven strategic planning efforts
More information on FSIS’ sampling programs is available here.
On January 21, 2025, FSIS updated the individual establishment Salmonella performance standard category information for raw poultry carcasses, raw chicken parts, and comminuted poultry products on the Salmonella Verification Testing Program Monthly Posting page on the FSIS website. Additionally, FSIS posted the aggregate sampling results showing the number of establishments in categories 1, 2, or 3 for establishments producing young poultry carcasses, raw chicken parts, or not ready-to-eat (NRTE) comminuted poultry products at the location linked above.
Beginning March 31, 2025, Chile will send electronic certification (eCert) data to FSIS for Chilean products eligible for U.S. import under FSIS jurisdiction. Once import eCert is implemented, FSIS will no longer require paper inspection certificates issued by Chile for Chilean imports. Import data from eCert will be received directly in FSIS’ Public Health Information System (PHIS), advancing the agency’s goals of modernizing and digitizing certification processes wherever possible.
FSIS has updated the following quarterly sampling data sets:
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Quarterly Sampling Results: The quarterly sampling report was updated to include results through the first quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2025. Quarterly, FSIS calculates prevalence, volume weighted percent positive, or percent positive calculations for microbial pathogens in FSIS regulated products that are currently sampled through existing sampling projects using the prior 12 months of sampling data.
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Quarterly Sampling Reports for Salmonella Serotype Information: The quarterly sampling report for Salmonella serotype information was updated to include results through the fourth quarter of FY 2024. This post includes quarterly Salmonella serotype data for Salmonella isolates collected from FSIS product categories.
PHIS Q&A
Question: How can I practice submitting export applications in PHIS?
Answer: Industry can use the Industry Test Environment (ITE) to test application submittals for exports. FSIS has provided testing instructions for industry on the FSIS website PHIS Components page, under Information for Industry. Please note that a login.gov and connected eAuth account that includes identity verification steps is required for all persons who will access PHIS, for both the test environment and the live production environment.
Visit PHIS Help for Industry for additional resources.
Knowledge Article
If the establishment's HACCP plan lists the monitoring procedure (9 CFR 417.2(c)(4)) and that monitoring procedure consists of multiple measurements to ensure compliance with the critical limit, the entry made on the HACCP record should include each of the measurements made during the monitoring procedure. Only one time and one initial or signature would be required per 9 CFR 417.5(b) for the monitoring event. The establishment is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of all measurements, regardless of the number taken.
Questions? Please submit them through askFSIS by filling out the web form on the FSIS website.
Visit AskUSDA.gov and include “askFSIS” in your search terms for more knowledge articles on this and other topics.
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