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The American Meat Institute on Tuesday told USDA it would
support an agency policy that would require companies to
hold product tested by the Food Safety and Inspection Service
until the agency returns test results.
AMI wrote a letter to Under Secretary for Food Safety Richard
Raymond, indicating it would support an agency policy under
which product tested by FSIS be barred from entering commerce
until results are available.
Currently, USDA does not require meat processors to test
and hold, though some implement the practice voluntarily.
AMI said "such a policy should not consist of agency retention
of any FSIS-tested product, but rather require a company
to utilize its own, effective control measures that ensure
the product is not used or distributed for sale before the
test results are known."
The organization noted it has long advocated as a best practice
that companies retain control of sampled product to avert
a potential recall, but some plants have not adopted this
practice.
In the case of E. coli O157:H7, 26 of the 49 recalls in
2007 occurred when product tested positive after it left
the control of the producing company and entered commerce.
Almost all of the nine listeria monocytogenes-related recalls
occurred under the same scenario, AMI said.
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