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Al AlmanzaUnder Secretary for Food SafetyUSDA
FY 14-15: Agency Priority Goal
Reduce the number of foodborne Salmonella illnesses that are associated with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)-regulated products—meat, poultry, and processed egg products.
Priority Goal
Goal Overview
Salmonella is the leading known cause of bacterial foodborne illness and death in the U.S. causing an estimated 1.3 million illnesses, and between 400 and 500 deaths annually. FSIS estimates that, in Q4, FY2013, approximately 393,000 Salmonella illnesses were associated with Agency-regulated products.
Preventing Salmonella infections depends on actions taken to reduce contamination of food by the food industry, regulatory agencies, and consumers, as well as actions taken for detecting and responding to outbreaks when they occur. FSIS, a public health regulatory agency within the USDA, is responsible for ensuring that the commercial supply of meat, poultry, and processed egg products moving in interstate commerce or exported to other countries is safe, secure, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.
This Agency Priority Goal (APG) tracks an established FSIS performance measure known as the “All-Illness Measure” that estimates the total number of illnesses from Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes (Lm), and E. coli O157:H7 from all FSIS-regulated products. FSIS estimates that approximately 33% of all salmonellosis is associated with FSIS regulated products* and that Salmonella comprises approximately 95% of all estimated illnesses in the All-Illness Measure. This corporate performance measure is included in the USDA Strategic Plan and the FSIS Strategic Plan for 2011-2016. FSIS Program Area actions designed to achieve the goal are included in the FSIS Annual Performance Plan. This APG specifically tracks and reports on reductions in Salmonella illnesses.
FSIS will attempt to achieve the ambitious reduction in Salmonella illnesses called for in this APG through the implementation of the 2013 FSIS Strategic Performance Working Group (SPWG) Action Plan for Salmonella, along with existing FSIS activities focused on reducing Salmonella contamination on regulated product.
Additionally, FSIS works closely with other Federal agencies that have a role in protecting the food supply, including both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); FSIS has worked with these agencies on a Priority Goal to reduce Salmonella Enteritidis illnesses from FDA-regulated shell eggs. FSIS also works with sister agencies within USDA, including the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), and USDA’s research agencies such as the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Economic Research Service (ERS), and National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) in protecting the food supply.
This goal relates directly to the USDA Strategic Plan goal 4.3, “Protect Public Health by Ensuring Food is Safe”, to ensure that all of America’s children have access to safe, nutritious, and balanced meals.
*At the time FSIS developed and submitted its Agency Priority Goal, the most recent outbreak data the Agency had to calculate foodborne illness attribution was from 2008-2010 (33% for Salmonella). In the subsequent quarter, FSIS received new outbreak data from the CDC, which allowed the Agency to estimate a new attribution fraction for 2009-2011, which for Salmonella was 31.7%.
Strategies
Over the coruse of the goal term, the following stratagies and milestones were completed.
Strategy 1: Begin to implement FSIS’ Poultry Slaughter Rule
FSIS has published a final rule on modernization of its poultry slaughter inspection system. Significant public health benefits will be achieved and foodborne illness will be prevented by focusing our inspectors’ attention on activities that will better ensure the safety of the poultry. Those changes include moving some inspectors away from quality assurance tasks—namely checking carcasses for bruises and feathers—to focus on food safety tasks, such as ensuring sanitation standards are being met and verifying testing and antimicrobial process controls. This science based approach means our highly-trained inspectors would spend less time looking for obvious physical defects and more time making sure steps poultry processing facilities take to control food safety hazards are working effectively.
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Milestones a |
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i. Finalize poultry slaughter regulations and develop and issue necessary instructions to implement the regulations. |
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ii. Initiated the bargaining process with the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals. |
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iii. Notified international trading partners of the upcoming implementation of the poultry slaughter rule to ensure that exports are not disrupted and to outline any potential changes to the equivalency process for imports. |
Strategy 2: Consider Modifying How we Post Salmonella Verification Testing Categories
Data indicate that posting the names of broiler and turkey establishments that are in Category 3, exceed the standard for Salmonella, led to improved control of Salmonella in those establishments. FSIS ceased web-posting of Category 2 establishments, those that have results that are higher than half of the standard but do not exceed the standard, as of June 2011. Data collected by the Agency since then, however, do not show continuous improvement in industry performance, and FSIS believes that making more information about the process control performance of these establishments available—both to the establishments themselves and publicly—will provide a valuable incentive for industry to improve process control.
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Milestones |
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i. Informed broiler establishments of their Salmonella category status under performance standard implemented in 2011 |
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ii. Estimated the number of Salmonella illnesses avoided by the implementation of stricter Salmonella performance standards for young chicken and turkey carcasses implemented in 2011. |
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iii. Announced determination as to whether FSIS will post the names of broiler establishments in Categories 1 and 2, in addition to Category 3, on the basis of their Salmonella results |
Strategy 3: Increase FSIS’ Salmonella-Related Activities for Other Products and Species
Despite progress in decreasing Salmonella contamination of broiler and turkey carcasses, FSIS-attributable Salmonella illnesses remain higher than Agency goals, and data indicate that other poultry products and products from other species contribute to FSIS-attributable Salmonella illnesses. FSIS, therefore, will increase its focus on some of those other products as follows:
Strategy 3a:
Data from FSIS’ raw chicken-parts baseline study indicate that the percentage of positive samples in poultry parts is typically higher than the percentage of positives in poultry carcasses, and poultry parts could be contributing to Salmonella illnesses. FSIS will develop guidance for industry to reduce Salmonella in chicken, including raw chicken parts, and has published performance standards for raw chicken parts, see above.
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Milestones |
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i. Published the results of FSIS’s Nationwide Microbiological Baseline Data Collection Program: Raw Chicken Parts Survey |
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ii. Developed a risk assessment to estimate the number of illnesses avoided given different numbers of allowable positive chicken parts regulatory samples |
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iii. Published proposed performance standards for comment and publish updated industry guidance for chicken parts |
Strategy 3b:
Comminuted poultry could be contributing to Salmonella illnesses. FSIS will focus a number of inspection activities on comminuted poultry products and develop a Salmonella sampling program for comminuted poultry products. New performance standards for comminuted poultry and chicken parts have been published.
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Milestones - Sampling |
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i. Began conducting exploratory sampling of comminuted poultry products (chicken and turkey) to provide data on which to base further sampling programs and performance standards |
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ii. Began quarterly posting of data from comminuted poultry samples on FSIS’ website |
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iii. Issued an Federal Register Notice (FRN) with proposed new performance standards for comminuted poultry products |
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Milestones – Inspection Activities |
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i. Issued FSIS directive and complete inspection-force training on Hazard Analysis Verification (HAV) procedures |
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ii. Began tasking—through FSIS’ Public Health Information System—HAV procedures nationwide |
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iii. Finalized validation guidance and issue FRN announcement of guidance availability. |
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iv. Completed Food Safety Assessments (FSAs)—using the new methodology and enforcement strategy—in the majority of comminuted poultry establishments. |
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v. Issued necessary instructions to FSIS field personnel regarding verification of validation requirements to verify that establishments meet FSIS’ regulatory requirements. |
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vi. Analyzed the results of the FSA procedures in raw comminuted poultry establishments to identify any changes in FSIS’ policies and guidance materials to decrease Salmonella in raw comminuted poultry establishments |
Strategy 3c:
CDC data on the attribution of Salmonella illnesses indicate that consumption of pork products is associated with a substantial number of Salmonella cases. FSIS will develop industry guidance for market hogs and consider developing sampling programs for pork products.
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Milestones |
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i. Developed plan for exploratory sampling of pork products. |
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ii. Began conducting exploratory sampling of pork products to provide data on which to base further sampling programs and performance standards. |
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iii. Posted and saught public comment on new guidance for preventing Salmonella contamination in hogs. |
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iv. Developed options for performance standards or compliance guidelines in pork products, as determined on the basis of exploratory sampling. |
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v. Issued a directive that provides instructions to inspectors on sanitary dressing procedures in hog slaughter establishments. |
Progress Update
All-Illness Measure (Salmonella illnesses):
In Q4, FY2015, FSIS did not achieve the Agency’s illness reduction targets set for Salmonella. The target for Q4, FY2015 was 357,515 Salmonella illnesses, and the actual estimated illnesses for Q4 attributable to Salmonella in FSIS-regulated product were 374,671.
Consequently, steps identified in the Strategy section of the APG document and discussed below, are still needed.
Salmonella Performance Standard
Progress Update
In Q4, FY2015, FSIS achieved the Agency’s goal for the percent of broiler establishments passing the Agency’s 2011 Salmonella performance standard. In Q4, FY2015, the percentage of broiler establishments passing the performance standard is 95.6%, exceeding the target of 94%. In May, FSIS began continuous sampling, rather than set based sampling, for products subject to Salmonella and Campylobacter testing, including young chicken carcasses. Previously, to determine the percentage of Young Chicken establishments passing the performance standard for this measure, the calculation was limited to establishments with at least two complete sets of 51 samples, and it was based on the two most recent completed sets (excluding any recent samples not part of a completed set), which were normally completed in the last 2 years. Starting with Q4 FY2015, to continue reporting results in the most similar way for this measure and to allow for historical comparison, FSIS will calculate the measure based on the most recent 51 samples from an establishment, collected within the past 2 years.
When reporting Q3 results, FSIS calculated and reported the result of this measure more similar to how FSIS will track industry performance in the future. That result was 94.2%. However, that approach will likely not begin until spring of 2016, pending publication of a Federal Register Notice. Because the current FSIS strategic plan concludes in FY2016, and FSIS will begin reporting on new measures in FY2017, the Agency determined that the best way to report performance for this measure would be to calculate the result as close as possible to what it did in the past under set based sampling. That result for Q3 was 96.2%.
Milestone Completion:
- All poultry slaughter establishments began their required compliance with sampling requirements for establishment-conducted testing under the Modernization of Poultry Slaughter Inspection final rule.
- Continuous sampling and a moving window approach to Salmonella verification testing began May 1.
- FSIS initiated routine sampling of raw chicken parts for Salmonella in March 2015, and FSIS Notice 50-15 issued in August to clarify instructions for field personnel.
- FSIS initiated the pork exploratory survey on May 1, 2015 with collection of samples from three types of products: comminuted pork, intact cuts, and intact other pork products. FSIS is continuing to collect samples and will analyze data.
- Performed Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) on 694 FSIS isolates (340 Salmonella, 148 STECs, 104 Campylobacter and 102 Lm) and uploaded the data to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
- FSIS developed a draft, automated, quarterly report of Agency sampling data (pathogens, Serotype, PFGE, AMR, residue and industry averages) by product for individual establishments. The report and distribution plan are being cleared internally through the FSIS Enterprise Governance process.
- The Nationwide Beef and Veal Carcass Microbiological Baseline study began on Aug 1, 2014. FSIS and the collection period has been extended six months, until January 31, 2016, in order to obtain the appropriate number of samples for the study.
- An operational measure model prototype was designed to characterize sampling subtyping results, seasonality, and weather factors affecting trends in Salmonella and Campylobacter positive sampling results. Working model currently focuses on Young Chicken carcass aggregate data analysis but may be expanded.
- FSIS continues to analyze for Salmonella all raw beef products collected for STEC testing.
Next Steps
No Data Available
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
FSIS works closely with other Federal agencies that have a role in protecting the food supply along the farm to table continuum, including both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the CDC, with whom FSIS shares a complementary food protection goal and with whom the Agency has worked with historically regarding a Priority Goal to reduce Salmonella Enteritidis illnesses from FDA-regulated shell eggs. FSIS also works with sister agencies within USDA, including the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and USDA’s research agencies such as the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
No Data Available
