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USDA-FSIS has published its Annual Sampling Plan for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, outlining the agency’s strategy for directing sampling resources in the coming year.

In response to USDA-FSIS’s proposed regulatory framework for Salmonella in raw poultry products, Consumer Reports has called the agency’s suggested enforceable standards “too lax,” and suggests specific changes, such as including S. Infantis as a serotype of public health concern. 

USDA-FSIS has completed swine and poultry line speed studies, finding that workers experienced pain in their upper extremities. FSIS is extending the current swine and poultry line speed waivers for companies that participated in these studies through May 15, 2025.

Per the USDA-FSIS Annual Plan for Fiscal Year 2025, the agency will focus on its proposed framework for Salmonella in poultry, including its regulation of Salmonella as an adulterant in certain products. FSIS will also work on truthful labeling, modernizing laboratory methods, and other efforts.

USDA-FSIS published a summary of its review of the deadly Boar’s Head Listeria monocytogenes outbreak, along with newly announced long-term measures to review and modernize its L. monocytogenes regulations and ready-to-eat (RTE) sampling programs.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we discuss the top food safety stories of 2024 and their implications, including high-profile foodborne illness outbreaks, the ongoing avian flu outbreak in poultry and dairy cattle, FDA’s Human Foods Program restructuring, rising concerns and evolving legislation around food additives and chemical contaminants, and other topics.

USDA is soliciting nominations for 30 new appointees to the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF), who will be tasked with reviewing USDA-FSIS’ regulatory approach for Listeria, among other charges.

This article addresses the requirements of the 3-A Sanitary Standards and some common misconceptions. It also describes the relationship between the 3-A Standards and U.S. federal regulations, as well as hygienic requirements beyond the sanitary design of the equipment—installation, validation, and maintenance.

This column explores food processors’ comments on the potential impacts of important industry developments, including the establishment of FDA’s Human Foods Program and USDA’s developing new regulatory approach to Salmonella in poultry. The article also delves into processors' priorities for their food safety programs in 2025. 

Following the high-profile, fatal listeriosis outbreak linked to Boar’s Head ready-to-eat (RTE) deli meats that prompted an internal review of USDA-FSIS processes, the agency has announced several new steps to strengthen its oversight of RTE facilities, including expanded Listeria rule requirements and stricter state-federal cooperative inspection agreements.