Scientific Criteria to Ensure Safe Food (2003) / Chapter Skim
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4 Scientific Criteria and Performance Standards to Control Hazards in Meat and Poultry Products
4 Scientific Criteria and Performance Standards to Control Hazards in Meat and Poultry Products
Pages 133-178
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From page 133... ...
Most beef produced in and exported from the United States is the grain-finished, high-quality, choice-cut variety, while imported beef is generally grass-fed and is used primarily for processing as ground beef (ERS, 2002~. Red meat production is a concentrated industry.
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From page 134... ...
Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
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From page 136... ...
North Carolina, which ranked fourteenth in pork production 30 years ago, now ranks second. MEAT AND POULTRY INSPECTION The Federal Inspection System Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act, USDA, through FSIS, inspects all domestic meat and poultry to be sold in interstate commerce in the United States (FSIS, 2001c)
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From page 137... ...
. This program was designed to explore extending HACCP and process controls to the slaughter of young animals to further improve food safety and reduce or eliminate product quality defects.
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From page 138... ...
In a historical context, it was believed that state inspection programs offered economic benefits such as lower ongoing costs of state inspection compared with federal inspection, greater flexibility in the scheduled time of inspection, and the ability to accommodate low-volume slaughter or processing from local livestock markets (WI DATCP, 2002~. In addition, state programs inspect and monitor custom plants, which are those that slaughter and process meat and poultry products for personal use by the animals' owners (i.e., not for subsequent sale)
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From page 139... ...
New Mexico is not pursuing adoption of the Food Code, but the state still utilizes it for guidance and interpretation (CFSAN, 2003; FDA, 2001~. The committee recommends that collaboration among USDA, FDA, and state and local governments continue, to help ensure the production of safe meat and poultry products and consumer protection in the United States.
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From page 140... ...
Promulgation of new standards and establishment of rigid scientific criteria for safe food are useless if monitoring and enforcement are not ensured. To that effect, the responsibility of meat and poultry inspectors should be redefined to reflect their role within a HACCP food safety assurance system.
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From page 141... ...
The results of these testing programs are used by the agency to determine whether processors receive a "fail" or "pass." In contrast to these microbiological standards and criteria, which apply to a broad range of products, "adulteration" is very narrowly interpreted for a specific bacterium and product, Escherichia cold 0157:H7 in raw ground beef. Standards for cooked products differ from the standards for raw meat and poultry in that they require the reduction of a stated number of a specific pathogen, as well as validation of the process used to achieve that reduction, instead of a testing and sampling program.
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From page 142... ...
The values for the various species are given in Table 4.2. TABLE 4.1 Sampling Frequency for Process Control Indicator (Generic Escherichia coli)
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From page 143... ...
§381.94) The process control criteria and the pathogen reduction standard for raw poultry are structured in an identical manner to those for red meats.
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cold 0157:H7 is an adulterant in raw ground beef based on its interpretation of the following section of the Federal Meat Inspection Act:
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From page 145... ...
cold 0157:H7 in raw ground beef product, irrespective of the method used to detect it, would meet either of the circumstances above and, therefore, such product would be considered adulterated. Requirements for the Production of Cooked Beef Roast Beef and Cooked Corned Beef Products (9 Vol 2 C.F.R.
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From page 146... ...
§381.150) The cooked poultry meat regulations contain process control requirements similar to the standards for red meats, and these requirements also need to be included in a plant's HACCP plan.
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From page 147... ...
Appendix B summarizes the details of the sanitation performance standards. Using a Science-Based Approach to Develop Performance Standards and Other Scientific Criteria As described in Chapter 3, a science-based approach to developing criteria, including performance standards, entails gathering, analyzing, and utilizing the best available data.
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From page 148... ...
For example, the lethality and stabilization standard document for meat and poultry products describes the method USDA prescribed to achieve the 7-D reduction of Salmonella in ready-to-eat (RTE) poultry products and the 6.5-D reduction of Salmonella in RTE beef products (FSIS, 1998c)
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From page 149... ...
The specific standards and the basis and rationale for their implementation are discussed in subsequent sections. The Scientific Basis of Current Criteria and Performance Standards USDA discussed the rationale for the introduction and use of process control criteria and pathogen reduction standards for fresh meats in the PR/HACCP rule (FSIS, 1996~.
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From page 150... ...
Test results that do not meet the performance criteria will be an indication that the slaughter establishment may not be maintaining adequate process control for fecal contamination and associated bacteria. Such results will be used in conjunction with other information to evaluate and make appropriate adjustments to ensure adequate process control for fecal contamination and associated bacteria.
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From page 151... ...
cold criteria has been an increased awareness in the meat and poultry industry of the importance and significance of process control on the microbiological status of carcasses. The concept of continuous improvement is central to food safety.
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From page 152... ...
FSIS will conduct Salmonella testing in slaughter establishments to detect whether they are meeting the pathogen reduction performance standards, and will require corrective action or take regulatory action, as appropriate, to ensure establishments are meeting the pathogen reduction standards. Pathogen-specific performance standards for raw products are an essential component of the FSIS food safety strategy because they provide a direct measure of progress in controlling and reducing the most significant hazards associated with raw meat and poultry products.
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From page 153... ...
This study consisted of 98,204 samples and 1,502 completed sample sets collected from large, small, and very small processing plants that produced one of the following: broilers, market hogs, cows, bulls, steers and heifers, or ground beef, chicken, or turkey. The overall conclusion was that greater than 80 percent of the sample sets met the Salmonella performance standards of 20.0 percent for broilers, 8.7 percent for market hogs, 2.7 percent for cows and bulls, 1.0 percent for steers and heifers, 7.5 percent for ground beef, 44.6 percent for ground chicken, and 49.9 percent for ground turkey.
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From page 154... ...
For ground chicken, there were 26 positive samples out of a sample set of 53. The goal of the Salmonella performance standards was to reduce the prevalence of Salmonella in raw meat and poultry products.
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From page 155... ...
2001) , the United States Court of Appeals decided that USDA's Salmonella performance standard improperly regulated the Salmonella levels of meat entering Supreme Beef' s grinding plant and that crosscontamination of ground beef with Salmonella could not be considered an unsanitary condition rendering the product "injurious to health." Thus, in the absence of finding unsanitary conditions at the establishment, USDA could not withdraw inspection from a grinding plant that had failed the Salmonella performance standard.
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From page 156... ...
Such a standard could be defined as either the presence/absence of the indicator or a quantitative measurement whenever possible. In addition, the committee recommends that the Salmonella performance standard for ground beef be reevaluated after appropriate interventions and the trim performance standard are in place.
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From page 158... ...
Considerably more education of the public and particularly of food service managers and workers is needed. Ground beef products should bear clear and concise labels warning of the potential for harm if the product is not properly cooked.
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From page 159... ...
advise those members of the public who would prefer to minimize the risk of this product to cook irradiated and nonirradiated ground beef products to the appropriate temperature, (2) require the products to be clearly labeled with a warning of the potential for harm if not properly cooked, and (3)
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From page 160... ...
The committee felt that it was important to emphasize the need for testing and interventions prior to the grinding operation. If the contamination of the trim used for ground beef could be reduced, or if contaminated trim could be diverted to other processes, then the potential for contaminated fresh ground beef reaching the consumer would be reduced.
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From page 161... ...
describe the method FSIS issued to achieve the 7-D reduction of Salmonella in RTE poultry products and the 6.5-D reduction of Salmonella in RTE beef products. The rationale given by FSIS for the lethality guidelines was based on the establishment of a worst-case population of salmonellae, by animal species, then the probability of salmonellae survival in 100 g of finished product after the specific lethality processes was calculated.
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From page 162... ...
FSIS determined that this chilling directive would constitute a safe harbor because compliance would yield cooked poultry products that would meet the stabilization performance standard and because most, if not all, establishments were already following this directive. From the statistical and the microbiological perspectives, the paper on the scientific basis for the stabilization standards (FSIS, 1998c)
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From page 163... ...
cold 0157:H7 in ground beef; outbreaks still occur. However, due to the potential severity of the resulting illness, especially in children, it may now be inappropriate to establish a level of tolerance other than zero.
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From page 164... ...
Many poultry plants also did not have an identifiable CCP within their process designated to reduce Salmonella to an acceptable level because no point in the slaughter process was designed to control Salmonella incidence on poultry and, therefore, no point met the definition of a CCP (i.e., points where the identified hazard may be prevented from entering the food, eliminated from it, or reduced to acceptable levels; see Chapter 3~. This situation may not have been anticipated by FSIS because the pathogen reduction component of the rule established procedures for failing to meet the Salmonella performance standard that included evaluation of the HACCP plan on the first failure, reevaluation and an in-depth verification audit process on the second consecutive failure, and withdrawal of marks of inspection on the third consecutive failure (CDC, 2002)
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From page 165... ...
While the Salmonella performance standard for ground products provides a guide to overall performance through the slaughter and processing continuum, it may not be appropriate to verify either the HACCP plan or the actual performance of the · 1gnnalng process. ECONOMIC COSTS AND BENEFITS OF THE PR/HACCP RULE A large share of the recent food safety economics literature has attempted to assess impacts of the PR/HACCP rule (Unnevehr, 2000~.
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From page 166... ...
The most contentious cost issue in USDA's regulatory impact assessment focused on the details of process modifications required by firms to ensure compliance with the pathogen reduction standards. The rule established performance standards for Salmonella for all plants that slaughter and that process raw ground product.
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From page 167... ...
, however, process modification costs for compliance with the Salmonella performance standard were not calculated; this approach suggests that these plants "must depend on the Salmonella levels of their incoming product to meet the performance standards" (FSIS, 1996~. This one clear statement made by FSIS meant that no additional costs were included or anticipated for compliance with the performance standard for grinders (which include the Supreme Beef plant)
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From page 168... ...
Also, international trade is clearly facilitated when harmonized HACCP-based regulations are adopted (Caswell and Hooker, 1996~. Potential legal liability and insurance cost savings can arise from the use of innovative food safety controls.
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From page 169... ...
Limited economic research exists to provide reliable estimates of costs and resultant benefits of many food safety interventions. Several pathogen reduction strategies, particularly multiple-hurdle techniques, incorporate novel approaches for which only limited commercial applications exist, thus requiring a cautious approach to forecasting potential costs.
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From page 170... ...
and that much of it becomes ground beef (Troutt et al., 2001) , the committee concludes that prevalence data on E
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From page 171... ...
In summary, the committee concludes that efforts to reduce preslaughter contamination are likely to be an important part of a farm-to-table food safety strategy, not only to reduce pathogen load at the slaughter plant, but also to prevent the hazard from direct contact with infected animals, from runoff on feedlots and farms, and from contaminated water supplies (Crump et al., 2002; Hilborn et al., 1999; Kassenborg et al., 1998; Martin et al., 1986; O'Brien and Adak, 2002; PPHB,2000~. This prevention process, beneficial to both animal and human health, comprises on-farm management practices that may reduce the spread and amplification of pathogens, as may sanitation practices during transportation and in feedlots, final holding pens, and slaughter boxes.
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From page 172... ...
The committee further concludes that the level of contamination of animals coming to slaughter is likely to be associated with the contamination of the meat; therefore, monitoring levels of contamination on and in the incoming animals is likely an important measurement of the level of risk and could help determine or require the use of mitigation steps. More importantly, measures that may reduce such contamination, such as changing what animals are fed in the last week of life, reducing fecal contamination on hides in the muddy seasons, or sanitizing the terminal holding pen and kill box, should be rapidly evaluated so that the level of contamination at the slaughter plant may be reduced.
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DO MEAT AND POULTRY PERFORMANCE STANDARDS IMPROVE PUBLIC HEALTH? The committee recognizes that substantial declines in four bacterial foodborne diseases observed in the United States via FoodNet surveillance since 1996 indicate that the collective efforts to improve food safety are having an effect (CDC, 2002~.
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1991. The Food Safety Act: An introduction.
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From page 175... ...
1998c. Lethality and Stabilization Performance Standards for Certain Meat and Poultry Products: Technical Paper.
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Microbiological Testing in Food Safety Management. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
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2002. Testing for Salmonella in raw meat and poultry products collected at federally inspected establishments in the United States, 1998 through 2000.
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1997. Improving cost/benefit analysis for HACCP and microbial food safety: An economist's overview.
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