As announced in the February 14, 2025 and February 28, 2025, Constituent Update, the Philippines will be onboarded into FSIS’ Public Health Information System (PHIS) export module on May 19, 2025. To facilitate preparation and a successful industry testing period, FSIS is providing industry users with testing instructions for export requirements unique to the Philippines. These instructions can be found on the Industry Testing Instructions: Philippines PHIS Export webpage, or by navigating to the PHIS components page, under the heading “Export,” then “Information for Industry,” and subsequently under “Constituent Updates.”
Industry users are encouraged to use the Industry Test Environment to test application submittals for export to the Philippines prior to implementation. The Philippines was added to the Industry Test Environment on February 17, 2025, so that industry partners can begin testing.
On January 17, 2025, FSIS responded to comments on the guideline and announced the availability of its revised Guideline for Controlling Retained Water in Raw Meat and Poultry. The guideline is intended to assist meat and poultry establishments in meeting the regulatory requirements concerning limits for water retained by raw, single-ingredient, meat and poultry products from post-evisceration processing, such as carcass washing and chilling. FSIS updated the guideline and provided additional clarification on arithmetic errors in establishment Retained Water Protocol (RWP) reviews. In addition, FSIS provided additional information on how establishments may address statistical variability.
In response to requests from associations representing the poultry industry, FSIS is announcing it will give establishments additional time to submit their revised RWPs to the Risk Management and Innovations Staff (RMIS) via askFSIS for review. FSIS is also delaying the date that Office of Field Operations (OFO) will start reviewing establishments’ RWPs. Establishments will have until May 2, 2025, to submit their RWPs to RMIS. OFO will begin reviewing RWPs on December 1, 2025. FSIS is not delaying the date by which establishments need to have accurate labels. Establishments will still have until January 1, 2026, to make any necessary label changes.
FSIS updated the following establishment-specific laboratory sampling datasets to account for missing data in the previously published datasets.
- Egg Product Sampling
- Raw Poultry Product Sampling
- Raw Beef Product Sampling
- Ready-to-Eat Product Sampling
On February 20, 2025, FSIS posted the individual establishment Salmonella performance standard category information for:
- raw poultry carcasses;
- raw chicken parts; and
- comminuted poultry products.
Additionally, FSIS posted the aggregate sampling results showing the number of establishments in categories 1, 2, or 3 for establishments producing young chicken and turkey carcasses, raw chicken parts, or not ready-to-eat (NRTE) comminuted poultry products.
The updates can be found on the Salmonella Verification Testing Program Monthly Posting page on the FSIS website.
The quarterly humane handling inspection datasets were updated on the FSIS website. The datasets include:
- the number of administrative enforcement actions taken;
- the number of humane handling verification tasks performed;
- the number of humane handling verification tasks that resulted in a noncompliance record (NR); and
- the number of hours spent observing and verifying the humane treatment of livestock.
This posting contains the most recent four quarters of data by district, HACCP size, and quarter.
PHIS Q&A
Question: I’m new to PHIS, how do I gain access?
Answer: For those new to PHIS-export, please register with Login.gov to initiate, update, or complete the electronic identification account and the PHIS enrollment process. Instructions can be found in the PHIS Industry User Guide, section 2 (Overview of PHIS). For further guidance on PHIS export and enrollment, please refer to the following user guides:
Visit PHIS Help for Industry for additional resources.
Knowledge Article
askFSIS Public Q&A: Generic Label Advisor Certificate
No. The certificate may be included as supporting documentation in the labeling record but is not required for labels to be generically approved. Establishments are not required to maintain the certificate.
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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