FSIS issues draft guidelines for RTE meats

By Lisa R. Van Wagner
Government Affairs Editor

USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has issued draft compliance guidelines for producers of ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products, including cooked, fermented, salt-cured and dried meat and poultry products.

The agency notes that the document is a draft, and should not be used for regulatory enforcement or compliance purposes. Instead, the draft compliance guidelines are intended to help establishments understand the requirements set forth in the USDA's February 27, 2001 proposed rule, which included lethality and stabilization performance standards, Listeria testing requirements, and rescission of requirements regarding trichina in pork products.

The guidelines make a number of recommendations for RTE products, including:

• Except for thermally-processed, commercially-sterile products, the performance standards for lethality for all ready-to-eat (RTE) products require a 6.5 log10 reduction of Salmonella throughout finished meat products and a 7.0 log10 reduction of Salmonella throughout finished products that contain poultry.

• In addition, RTE fermented products that contain beef are required to have 5 log10 reduction of E. coli O157:H7 throughout.

• Except for thermally-processed, commercially-sterile products, the performance standards for stabilization require no growth of Clostridium botulinum and no more than 1 log10 growth Clostridium perfringens throughout all RTE meat and poultry products.

The draft compliance guidelines may be viewed at: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FRPubs/RTEGuide.pdf.