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FSIS lists 2019 accomplishments, 2020 agenda

The Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has published a news release listing its 2019 accomplishments and agenda for 2020.

“It’s all about the science,” said Deputy Undersecretary for Food Safety Mindy Brashears. “Science and data inform every decision we make.”

In fiscal year 2019, FSIS inspected more than 164 million head of livestock and 9.83 billion poultry carcasses, the agency noted. FSIS inspection program personnel also conducted 7.1 million food safety and food defense procedures across 6,500 regulated establishments to ensure meat, poultry and processed egg products are safe and wholesome, the agency said.



FSIS listed modernization at the top of its 2019 list, with its swine inspection rule at the top of that list.

For 2020, Brashears listed the following “next steps”:



▪ “Finalize rules proposed in 2019, including the Egg Products Inspection Regulations rule.

▪ Propose expanded testing for non-0157 STEC on all FASIS-regulated beef products, and request comments on the plans before finalizing them during FY 2020.

▪ Continue to focus on food safety modernization, including: — Exploring improvements to beef slaughter inspection; — Expanding the chemical residue surveillance program; — Revising performance standards for campylobacter in comminuted chicken and turkey products based on a method change; and — Proposing performance standards for salmonella in raw pork cuts and raw comminuted pork products.”

–The Hagstrom Report