Q&A with USDA FSIS: Modernizing Egg Products Inspection Methods
After the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) announced plans to modernize egg inspection methods for the first time since Congress passed the Egg Products Inspection Act in 1970, Food Safety Magazine reached out to the agency for more information. Below are the questions we posed, answered by an FSIS spokesperson. For background information, see USDA's original announcement.
What exactly are the modernized regulations? That is, what is changing from the 1970 rule [besides requirements for Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOPs) and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP)]?
Under the new rule, egg products plants are required to develop and implement HACCP and SSOPs, which aligns the egg products regulations to be consistent with the current requirements in the meat and poultry products inspection regulations. FSIS will continue to test for Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes in egg products. FSIS already requires that plants produce egg products that meet food safety standards and are edible without additional preparation and nothing in the final rule changes those requirements.