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On March 17, 2025, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced new actions to reduce burdens on the U.S. pork and poultry industries, allowing for greater efficiency while maintaining food safety standards. The directive instructs the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to eliminate outdated administrative requirements that have slowed production and added unnecessary costs for American producers.
“America leads the world in pork and poultry production, and we are committed to ensuring our producers remain competitive on a global scale without being held back by unnecessary bureaucracy,” said Secretary Rollins. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are cutting unnecessary red tape, empowering businesses to operate more efficiently, and strengthening American agriculture –all while upholding the highest food safety standards.”
Under the new policy, FSIS will extend waivers allowing pork and poultry facilities to maintain higher line speeds, ensuring they can meet demand without excessive government interference. Rulemaking to formalize these speed increases will begin immediately. Additionally, FSIS will no longer require plants to submit redundant worker safety data, as extensive research has confirmed no direct link between processing speeds and workplace injuries. These reforms will strengthen U.S. food production, reduce costs for producers, and support a more resilient supply chain.
On March 31, 2025, FSIS deployed three key enhancements to the Public Health Information System (PHIS) Export module to make the 9060-export application process more efficient for export applicants. The improvements include:
- PHIS holds the applicant’s search results on the 9060-application list while the applicant opens and closes an individual 9060-application record. This reduces the need for repetitive and time-consuming searching and filtering.
- The Key Word Search box on the 9060-application list is split into the two search boxes to reduce the amount of data PHIS consumes, making the search operate more efficiently:
- The Application Number search box allows applicants to search for one or more complete or partial application numbers separated by commas.
- The Establishment/Reviewer search box allows applicants to search by exporting establishment number, exporting establishment name, or FSIS reviewer name.
- PHIS allows the applicant to edit more data fields in an original 9060-application after FSIS review begins to increase the opportunity for applicants to find and correct errors before final FSIS approval. Applicants are able to edit the following data fields by unlocking an original application up until final approval by FSIS:
- Exporter name and address;
- Exporting establishment number format (e.g., with or without preceding letter);
- Export mark to be used;
- Importer name and address and destination country;
- Total net weight and certification statement checkboxes on the Product Summary page;
- All fields on the Product Details page;
- Access Control (can be edited even after FSIS approval);
- Add or remove statements or remarks; and
- Attach or delete supplemental and supportive documents.
NOTE: FSIS approvers may need to perform additional export verification or reinspect products to verify the accuracy of some edits.
NOTE: Data fields that can be edited on a replacement application will not change.
FSIS has published in the Federal Register the “Adjusted Dollar Limitations to Qualify for Retail Exemption.” The dollar limitations apply to the amount of meat and poultry that a retail store can sell to hotels, restaurants, and similar institutions without disqualifying itself for exemption from federal inspection requirements. In accordance with FSIS' regulations, for calendar year 2025, the value for the retail dollar limitation for meat and meat products (including Siluriformes) is $103,600; the value for the retail dollar limitation for poultry and poultry products is $74,800. The dollar limitations will be effective on April 10, 2025.
FSIS has posted the National Residue Program Quarterly Report (October – December 2024) and associated datasets. The report and datasets cover residue sampling data for domestic (scheduled and inspector-generated) and import sampling programs for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025. The quarterly report summarizes the chemical residue results for the U.S. National Residue Program for meat, poultry, and egg products, helping to ensure a safe food supply.
Please visit the FSIS website for more details on the annual sampling plans and reports.
On March 20, 2025, FSIS posted the updated individual establishment Salmonella performance standard category information for:
- raw poultry carcasses;
- raw chicken parts; and
- comminuted poultry products.
The updated information can be found on the Salmonella Verification Testing Program Monthly Posting page on the FSIS website. Additionally, FSIS will post 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.
FSIS has published its fiscal year (FY) 2024 product and cecal sampling Antimicrobial Resistance reports, as first announced in the October 25, 2024, Constituent Update. These reports cover data from the prior FY and are released annually when all analyses are completed.
This data release includes the sampling projects and pathogens under the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) and includes the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) profile data by isolate counts. The bacterial isolates reported include Salmonella, Campylobacter, Enterococcus, and Escherichia coli from FSIS cecal projects, and Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli from FSIS product projects.
As announced in the February 14, 2025, Constituent Update, the Philippines will be onboarded into FSIS’ Public Health Information System (PHIS) export module on May 19, 2025. As a reminder, to facilitate preparation and a successful industry testing period, FSIS has provided 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.
For further guidance on PHIS export and enrollment, please refer to the following user guides:
Please contact internationalcoordination@usda.gov with any questions regarding these changes. Technical questions can be directed to PHISTechnicalQA@usda.gov.
FSIS is changing the implementation date for Chile to send electronic certification (eCert) for Chilean products eligible for U.S. import under FSIS jurisdiction. Beginning April 14, 2025, Chile will send eCert data to FSIS instead of the original date of March 31. Once import eCert is implemented, FSIS will no longer require paper inspection certificates issued by Chile for Chilean imports. ECert import data will be received directly in FSIS’ Public Health Information System (PHIS), advancing the agency’s goals of modernizing and digitizing certification processes wherever possible.
Importers or U.S. customs brokers that submit FSIS electronic import applications through U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) can find the specific partner government (PG) records needed for all countries (both eCert and non-eCert) in the FSIS guidance document titled, “Data Samples and Guidelines for Using the Partner Government Agency (PGA) Message Set for Electronic Completion of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) Application for Import Inspection (FSIS Form 9540-1).”
Beginning April 14, 2025, Chile will be identified as an eCert country for the purposes of the ACE-PHIS interface. Importers and U.S. customs brokers that use the paper FSIS Form 9540-1 application rather than the electronic import application can find further information in FSIS Directive 9900.4.
PHIS Q&A
Question: I have had access to PHIS in the past but haven’t used it in the last couple of months. I’m now getting a message that says my account is inactive. How do I get access again?
Answer: If it has been more than a couple of months since you’ve used PHIS, please be aware that you can lose access to the system. After 90 days of non-use, your account will be inactivated, but sometimes it takes less time than that before you lose access. Users listed with an Administrator responsibility in the Profile > Contacts page can try these steps to reactivate:
- First, go to https://phis.fsis.usda.gov/enrollment
- Put in your username and password
- Select Log in
- Select OPEN FSIS Dashboard.
- You should be back at the home page of PHIS with all the roles you had previously.
If this does not work, contact the administrator at your facility and ask them to make you active again by using their establishment or corporate administrator role, selecting User Management > Manage Users. Select the radio button on the right side for inactive, and on the right side of where your name comes up, select Open, then choose the “Activate” link. To give you immediate access to the facility again, the administrator should select Run PHIS Data Feed on the bottom right of the screen.
Visit PHIS Help for Industry for additional resources.
Knowledge Article
askFSIS Public Q&A: The Use and Labeling of Ingredients of Public Health Concern - Allergen Statement Requirements
No. However, FSIS has policies in place and strongly encourages the use of allergen statements consistent with the Food Allergens Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA). Allergens, particularly the "big-8" (i.e., milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans) are a public health concern. The FALCPA labeling requirements are specific to products regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Under the FALCPA, any ingredient with a common or usual name that does not reflect that it was from a "big-8" source (e.g., sodium caseinate) would need to be labeled to reflect the source (e.g., sodium caseinate (milk)). For consistency in the labeling of all food products and to enhance the information available to consumers, FSIS believes that it is prudent public health policy for meat, poultry, and processed egg products to bear allergen statements consistent with the FALCPA. FSIS will consider rulemaking to require the labeling of allergen statements if FSIS does not continue to observe through its prior label approval process, widespread voluntary compliance with the use of statements of this type on meat, poultry, and egg product labels. Please see the Agency's compliance policy guide Allergens - Voluntary Labeling Statements on the use of allergen statements.
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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