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Legal/Regulatory News
USDA mulling mandatory test-and-hold to reduce meat recalls: report

By Tom Johnston on 11/19/2007 for Meatingplace.com


The federal government continues to ponder the implementation of a mandatory test-and-hold procedure to help prevent meat recalls, a USDA official told USA Today.

Kenneth Petersen, assistant administrator for USDA, said the agency might require meat processors to hold product until the government's test results are returned.

Federal law currently allows companies to ship meat before test results come back. But if those results are positive, recalls ensue.

"We don't require test and hold. We recommend that companies do so," Amanda Eamich, spokeswoman for USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, told Meatingplace.com. "If a company held products that were awaiting final test results, there wouldn't be product in commerce to recall."

Eamich noted, however, that some companies cannot afford to wait. "If they have product that has a very short shelf life, as a business they may not be able to hold product until the test comes," she said.

Ten of this year's 53 recalls followed routine USDA testing, according to FSIS figures. Those recalls were relatively small and were not associated with illnesses.

The recalls resulting from USDA tests involves some 43,000 pounds of ground beef, chicken, turkey and ham products.

Although holding product may have prevented those recalls, many meat industry members say further steps are needed to combat food-borne pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7
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