The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) declared new procedures to speed up tracing the source of contaminated ground beef, remove it from the market and find its cause to prevent future occurrence. These new procedures build on proposed initiatives for retailers to keep records of their ground beef suppliers and new methods to test the products for pathogens.
Under the new procedures, FSIS will conduct immediate investigations as soon as notification of a positive test for E. coli is received during initial testing. Prior to the new procedures, investigations began at the grinding facility only after a positive test was confirmed, which could take two days.
As part of the traceback investigation, the agency also will determine whether the supplying establishment shipped product that may be contaminated to other grinding facilities or further processors. If so, FSIS will take steps to have that product removed from commerce, according to USDA.
The improved traceback procedures will be fully implemented 60 days after publication in the Federal Register on Oct. 14, 2014.