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In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we talk to Sandra Eskin, Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and head of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Sandra discusses FSIS' approach to mitigating Salmonella in poultry, including the agency’s Proposed Regulatory Framework to Reduce Salmonella Illnesses Attributable to Poultry.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has announced upcoming changes and expansions to its beef sampling and testing programs for Escherichia coli and Salmonella. 

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we talk to Dr. David Acheson, President and CEO of food safety consultancy The Acheson Group, about a variety of pressing topics for the food industry, such as the declaration of Salmonella as an adulterant in poultry, Cannabis edibles regulations, compliance with the agricultural water rule, modernizing recalls, mitigating the risk of PFAS, and others. Dr. Acheson has a background in internal medicine and infectious diseases, and also served as the Chief Medical Officer at FDA’s CFSAN.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service’s (USDA’s FSIS’) National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods will hold a virtual public meeting to discuss a work related to Cronobacter, Cyclospora, and Salmonella.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has proposed a regulatory framework that would change food safety in the poultry industry, including new flock testing requirements, enhancing process control and verification, and implementing enforceable final product standards.

Arkansas is the 29^th state to enter into a cooperative agreement that allows for Arkansas’ inspection program to inspect meat products produced for intrastate shipment under the State Meat and Poultry Inspection program.

A California U.S. District Court has upheld the authority of swine processing plant employees to pre-sort animals prior to slaughter as outlined in the Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection Rule under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s New Swine Inspection Service.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) will host a virtual open house featuring live demonstrations and presentations on Salmonella sampling and quantification, whole genome sequencing, agency technology, and the National Residue Program.

Researchers from the USDA’s Economic Research Service and CDC developed a model that can be used to assess the value of state and federal foodborne illness outbreak investigations and subsequent recalls. The researchers demonstrated the replicability of the model using a 2018 Salmonella outbreak as a case study.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) will host two webinars to provide an overview of the revised 2021 Cooking Guideline for Meat and Poultry Products (Revised Appendix A) and 2021 Stabilization Guideline for Meat and Poultry Products (Revised Appendix B).