The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today announced that the following FSIS Directives are now available:

• FSIS Directive 5000.8 - Verifying Compliance with Requirements for Written Recall Procedures
• FSIS Directive 6130.1 Revision 1 - Ante-Mortem, Postmortem Inspection of Equines and Documentation of Inspection Tasks.
• FSIS Directive 7120.1 Revision 17 - Safe and Suitable Ingredients Used In the Production of Meat, Poultry, and Egg Products

Although the Directives are written for inspection program personnel, food processing company officials with responsibility for food safety or regulatory compliance may find the Directives to be useful reference documents.

Specifically, FSIS Directive 5000.8 provides instructions for inspection program personnel to follow when verifying that official establishments that produce meat or poultry products have prepared and are maintaining required written recall procedures.

FSIS Directive 6130.1 Revision 1 provides instructions to inspection program personnel on how to perform ante-mortem inspection of equines before slaughter and post-mortem inspection of equine carcasses and parts after slaughter. Additionally, this directive instructs FSIS Public Health Veterinarians making ante-mortem and post-mortem dispositions of equines how to perform residue testing, verify humane handling, verify marking of inspected equine products, and document results using the Public Health Inspection System (PHIS).

FSIS Directive 7120.1 Revision 17 provides inspection program personnel with an up-to-date list of substances that may be used in the production of meat, poultry, and egg products. FSIS will continue to update this directive quarterly by issuing revisions to this directive as opposed to issuing amendments to the directive. Revision 17 includes updates to the list of substances added since the August 13, 2013, issuance of the directive.