Release No. 0023.01

Andy Solomon (202) 720-4623
andy.solomon@usda.gov

USDA PROPOSES ADDITIONAL STEPS TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF READY-TO-EAT MEAT AND POULTRY PRODUCTS

       WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2001--In an effort to further reduce the risk of human illness from ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today announced a proposed regulation that would require meat and poultry processors to conduct environmental testing for generic Listeria and establish food safety performance standards for illness-causing bacteria in all ready-to-eat and partially heat-treated meat and poultry products.

       "USDA is committed to ensuring the safety of all meat and poultry products throughout their shelf life," Glickman said. "The best way to help ensure the safety of these products is to establish science-based, food safety performance standards and then closely monitor compliance with those standards."

       The Listeria performance standards proposed today would ensure that all categories of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products are covered by a performance standard. The standards set levels of pathogen reduction and limits on pathogen growth that official meat and poultry plants must achieve in order to produce unadulterated products that contain zero detectable pathogens.

       The USDA proposal, which President Clinton directed the Department to develop, would also require that establishments producing ready-to-eat meat and poultry products conduct environmental testing for generic Listeria as verification that they are controlling the presence of L. monocytogenes.

       Under the proposal, which will be published in the Federal Register soon, Salmonella performance standards for certain categories of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products also would be implemented and, to control the growth of C. perfringens and C. botulinum, performance standards for these pathogens would be required for all ready-to-eat, all partially heat-treated, and in thermally processed, commercially sterile meat and poultry products.

       L. monocytogenes causes an estimated 2,500 serious illnesses and 500 deaths each year. On January 18, USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services published a Listeria Risk Assessment, which found that many ready-to-eat meat and poultry products pose relatively high risks to consumers.

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