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USDA
Proposes Steps to Ensure Safety of Ready-to-Eat Meat and Poultry
Washington,
D.C., Feb. 12---In an effort to reduce the
risk of human illness from ready-to-eat meat and poultry products,
the U.S. Department of Agriculture is proposing regulation that will
require meat and poultry processors to conduct environmental testing
for generic Listeria. In addition, the new regulations will
establish safety performance standards for illness-causing bacteria
in all ready-to-eat and partially heat-treated meat and poultry
products.
 The
proposed Listeria performance standards will effect all categories
of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, says. Dr. Jean Weese,
Extension food safety scientist with the Alabama Cooperative
Extension System. The new standards will set levels of pathogen
reduction and limits on pathogen growth that official meat and
poultry plants must achieve in order to produce unadulterated
products that contain zero detectable pathogens.
The USDA proposal also
will require that establishments producing ready-to-eat meat and
poultry products conduct environmental testing for generic Listeria
as verification that they are controlling the presence of L.
monocytogenes.
L. monocytogenes cause
an estimated 2,500 serious illnesses and 500 deaths each year, Weese
says. In January, the USDA and the Department of Public Health
published a Listeria Risk assessment which found that many
ready-to-eat meat and poultry products pose relatively high risks to
consumers.
The growth of C.
perfringens and C. botulinum, also would need to be controlled in
all ready-to-eat, partially heat-treated, and in thermally
processed, commercially sterile meat and poultry products.
Salmonella performance standards for certain categories of
ready-to-eat meat and poultry products would be implemented as well.
SOURCE: Dr. Jean Weese,
Extension Food Safety Scientist, Alabama Cooperative Extension
System (334) 844-3269
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