The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) needs to do more to reduce the incidence of pathogens like Salmonella and Campylobacter in meat and poultry products.
While FSIS began setting pathogen-related standards in 1996, FAO, in a recent report, said that more actions need to be taken.
For instance, there are some meat and poultry products like whole chicken, ground chicken and chicken wings and legs that have standards on how much harmful bacteria FSIS can find when testing, Steve Morris, GAO director of natural resources and environment stated in a podcast on the GAO website. But other commonly sold products, such as turkey breasts and pork chops, do not have such standards, Morris added. The GAO further stated that it is unclear how the agency decides which products to consider for new standards.
GAO also says that some of the FSIS standards are outdated and have no time frames for revisions. One example given by Morris is that the standards for ground beef have not been updated in 20 years.
With that in mind, GAO is making the following three recommendations:
- The FSIS administrator should document the agency’s process for deciding which products to consider for new pathogen standards, including on which such decisions should be made.
- The FSIS administrator should set time frames for determining what pathogen standards or additional policies are needed to address pathogens in beef carcasses, ground beef, pork cuts and ground pork.
- The FSIS administrator should include available information on the effectiveness of on-farm practices to reduce the level of pathogens as it finalizes its guidelines for controlling Salmonella in hogs.
The GAO stated that when it confirms the actions FSIS has taken in response to its recommendations, it will provide updated information.
