The food safety and inspection service of the USDA slows down a test program that will determine whether certain raw chicken products are contaminated with salmonella.
The verification and sampling program for non-ready-to-eat breaded and filled chicken products were originally set to start on 1 May, but is delayed until November 3. The USDA also slows down the date on which institutions must re -assess their hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) for such products.
It is and is still legal for the industry to knowingly sell chicken that is polluted with Salmonella. The USDA blames the delay in the testing program for non-ready-to-eat-pedated and filled chicken products on President Biden, and says it is necessary because of “competing priorities at the end of the last presidential administration.”
In the announcement about the delay, the USDA said it needs extra time to offer additional guidelines.
“This extra time is necessary for FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service) to complete its instructions to inspectors and to prepare his inspection program -staff and laboratories for the new sample and testing,” said the USDA announcement.
The USDA has been working on the test program for years and has consulted the industry about it. The agency told the industry about the final regulations for the program on 1 May 1, 2024, when it published its final provision in the Federal register Salmonella explained that as a counterfeit in non-ready-eat, breaded, filled chicken products.
During the delay of six months before the test program, the USDA intends to provide an updated updated sampling instructions and training for inspectors. The delay is also reportedly necessary to give new leadership that President Donald Trump has been appointed time to view and give policy input about the test program.
Although the test program -details have been available for industry for a year, the USDA says that the delay FSIs will enable “to help branches in the final provision by making new recommendations about fate and keeping product. FSIS can give a guidance document or give webinars to give questions and to give feedback on the desk.”
After the test program for the non-Ready-TE Food Chicken Products comes into effect, the FSIS is planning to implement end product standards for all chicken with regard to infection by five Salmonella serotypes. The office published those standards in July 2024.
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