| February 11, 2022 USDA Announces Equity Commission Members USDA has announced the members of the newly established Equity Commission and its Subcommittee on Agriculture. The commission will hold its first public meeting on February 28, 2022. Deputy Secretary Jewel Bronaugh and United Farm Workers President Emeritus Arturo S. Rodriguez will serve as co-chairs of the commission. As authorized and funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, the launch of the independent commission delivers on President Biden's commitment to create an independent Equity Commission and provide it with the necessary resources to support its mission to address historical discrimination at USDA. For more details on each member and about the first Equity Commission meeting, please view the USDA press release and visit the Equity Commission page. FSIS to Propose Raw Pork Performance Standards Next week, FSIS expects to publish proposed pathogen reduction performance standards for Salmonella in raw comminuted pork and raw pork cuts in the Federal Register. The notice will also describe how FSIS plans to assess whether establishments producing these products are effectively addressing Salmonella using a moving window of FSIS sampling results. If the proposed pathogen reduction performance standards are finalized, about one year after FSIS starts assessing whether establishments meet the standards, FSIS would determine individual establishment performance based on the previous 52 weeks of FSIS Salmonella sample results and then report on the FSIS website the category of each establishment subject to the performance standard. FSIS will invite interested persons to submit comments on this notice, to be submitted within 60 days of the proposed rule publishing in the Federal Register. FSIS will include updates on the release of the notice in a future Constituent Update and additional information will be made available on the FSIS website. Reminder: USDA Launches Loan Guarantee Program USDA is accepting applications for its Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program that will guarantee loans of up to $40 million to help eligible entities expand meat and poultry processing capacity and finance other food supply chain infrastructure. The program aims to address food system challenges dating back decades and further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These investments will help essential processing and supply chain infrastructure that will eliminate bottlenecks in the food supply chain and ultimately deliver more opportunities and fairer prices for farmers. USDA is accepting electronic applications from lenders through the Food Supply Chain Online Application System until funds are expended. For more details, please view the December 10, 2021 Constituent Update, visit the USDA Rural Development website, view the Federal Register notice, and read the Department press release. PHIS to Move to New Cloud Platform FSIS' Public Health Information System (PHIS) is moving to a new cloud infrastructure for both the production environment and the Industry Testing Environment (ITE). This move will improve performance, increase reliability, and require less maintenance and down time. The move will occur on March 27, 2022, and the system is expected to be down temporarily that day between 10:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. FSIS will issue an "All User Message" when PHIS production is back online and ready for use. To facilitate testing of the cloud environment, the ITE will be turned on in the new cloud infrastructure on February 28, 2022. Please note, data entered in the previous ITE will not be transferred to the new infrastructure. E-Authentication level 2 accounts in production and/or ITE will remain active in both environments. Those who do not have an e-Authentication level 2 account will be prompted to complete the process before entering either environment. FSIS encourages industry to log in to the ITE between February 28 and March 11, 2022, to test connections and processes. Please send questions about the new cloud platform to PHISTechnicalQA@usda.gov. Technical Correction to FSIS Quarterly Sampling Results On February 11, 2022, the sampling results for FSIS regulated products were updated on the agency's website with corrections to calendar year 2020 values. Quarterly, FSIS calculates prevalence, volume weighted percent positive, or percent positive calculations for microbial pathogens in FSIS regulated products that are currently sampled through existing sampling projects using the prior 12 months of sampling data. This posting includes sampling results for raw beef, raw pork, raw chicken, raw turkey, processed eggs, and ready-to-eat products. The updated sampling results are available here. FSIS to Post Updated Dataset on Import Refusals On February 15, 2022, FSIS will update the publicly posted dataset on import refusals for products that the agency regulates. Federal law requires every commercial shipment of imported meat, poultry, and egg products to be reinspected prior to product entering U.S. commerce. FSIS reinspects each shipment to verify labeling, proper certification, general condition, and any signs of tampering and to identify product adulterated by transportation damage. FSIS also performs additional activities on a random and/or for-cause basis, such as physical product examination and laboratory sampling for pathogens and chemical residues. Any product that does not meet FSIS requirements is refused entry, and the importer has up to 45 days (30 days for egg products) to have the product destroyed for use as human food, re-exported/returned to the foreign country, converted to animal food, or brought into compliance with FSIS requirements, if applicable (e.g., relabeled, remarked, or issued a replacement certificate). This dataset is updated around the 15th of each month and contains each shipment with product that was refused entry. To access these datasets or view more information about them, please visit the Import and Export Data page. FSIS to Modernize Campylobacter Analysis of Poultry Samples To reduce result reporting times for regulatory pathogen testing, FSIS will begin using a new Campylobacter enrichment medium at all three field service laboratories to analyze poultry samples received on or after March 7, 2022. Poultry samples include carcass rinsates, chicken parts rinsates, ground/comminuted chicken and turkey, and turkey sponges. These samples will now be enriched with the new medium at the beginning of the method with no change to the subsequent laboratory rapid screening and confirmation procedures. The use of the new enrichment medium is expected to reduce the Campylobacter enrichment incubation time from approximately 48 hours to 24 hours with no anticipated impact to positive rates. Therefore, FSIS expects routine reporting time for a screened negative Campylobacter analysis will be reduced from 3 days to 2 days, and a confirmed positive Campylobacter analysis will be reduced from 5 days to 4 days. FSIS will update its Microbiology Laboratory Guidebook to reflect these changes. The updated MLG Chapter 41 will be available on the FSIS MLG website on February 14, 2022. FSIS Publishes Study on Safe Handling Instructions Labeling FSIS has published the results of a consumer behavioral study on safe handling instructions (SHI), which are required to appear on the packaging of all raw or partially cooked meat and poultry products intended for sale to consumers. The study evaluated consumer reaction to three revised SHI labels on product packaging to determine whether consumers noticed the labels more and, therefore, followed the instructions better as compared to current SHI labels. The SHI labels advise consumers on the four key food safety steps: cleaning (including handwashing), avoiding cross-contamination, cooking food thoroughly, and refrigerating leftovers. In 2013, FSIS gathered input from academia, industry, and consumer stakeholders to identify modifications to the SHI requirements. In 2014, the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection recommended FSIS pursue changes to the existing SHI label. As a result, FSIS conducted consumer testing to review the current and redesigned SHI labels. The research found that the revised SHI labels did not perform better than the current SHI label in drawing the attention of consumers or in consumers following the handling instructions. The observational study also found that consumers focused more on the manufacturer's cooking instructions than on the required SHI label. The study can be found on FSIS' Consumer Research webpage. Policy Update FSIS notices and directives on public health and regulatory issues are available on the FSIS Policy webpage. The following policy updates were recently issued: FSIS Directive 8010.4 - Report of Investigation - Revision 6 FSIS Notice 04-22 - Extended Deadline for Fiscal Year 2022 - Student Loan Repayment Program for In-Plant Veterinary Medical Officers - Application Timeframe Export Requirements Update The Library of Export Requirements has been updated for products for the following: - Canada
- Solomon Islands
- India
- Belarus
- Qatar
- Kazakhstan
- Ukraine
- Barbados
- French Polynesia (Tahiti)
- Jordan
- Western Samoa (Samoa)
- Japan
- United Arab Emirates
- Jamaica
- Cuba
- New Caledonia
- Costa Rica
- New Zealand
- European Union
- Namibia
- United Kingdom
- Benin
- China
- Singapore
- Taiwan
- South Africa
- Tunisia
- Brazil
Complete information can be found at the FSIS Import & Export Library. | 
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