USDA includes special Boar’s Head review in annual sampling plan

The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is continuing its sampling plan and has published updates for the 2025 fiscal year.

The plan is designed to leverage technological and sampling advances to detect microbiological contaminants and chemical residues, thereby protecting the food supply.

In addition to regular testing, the FSIS is conducting a review of the deadly 2024 Listeria monocytogenes illness outbreak associated with Boar’s Head deli meat. When the review is completed, FSIS could make changes to its sampling plan, as appropriate, to address recommendations from the review.

Process for scheduling, collecting and analyzing samples

The number of sampling tasks inspectors can receive at a domestic establishment varies greatly depending on the types and quantities of products produced, according to the USDA’s plan.

Non-routine sampling can be assigned to an establishment in response to results or other historical establishment performance. Sampling “type of inspection” tasks are assigned to imported products for each foreign country and product combination based on the number of imported shipments received. These sampling rates vary based on the amount and type of product imported each year. 

Additional non-routine type of inspection tasks can also be assigned to countries for imported product in response to sampling results, foreign establishment performance history, or as part of foreign country equivalence determination activities.

“Several variables can impact the plan as the fiscal year progresses. The lack of available products that are eligible for sampling within the specific sampling tasks’ allotted timeframe is one of the biggest challenges (inspectors) face when trying to collect all the samples anticipated in the sampling plan,” according to the USDA.

“Therefore, the FSIS Annual Sampling Plan is based on the number of samples anticipated to be analyzed instead of those assigned. Additionally, differences between the planned number and analyzed number of samples may be due to changes in the number of inspected establishments producing eligible products.”

Sampling priorities in Food Safety and Inspection Service’s plan for fiscal year 2025 include:

• Raw poultry sampling: FSIS will explore Salmonella quantification analysis of multiple poultry product types in support of its efforts to reduce salmonellosis cases associated with poultry consumption. FSIS will also explore which Salmonella serotypes and virulence factors pose the greatest public health risk, and will commence sampling of source material for raw, breaded and stuffed chicken products.
• Raw beef sampling: FSIS improved the laboratory analysis for Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) analysis in raw beef, allowing products to move more quickly as fewer lots will await adulterant confirmation by reducing the time to a confirmed negative result. FSIS will also leverage the existing National Residue Program to conduct testing on muscle tissue from culled dairy cow for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 (HPAI H5N1).
• Cell-cultured products: FSIS and the Food and Drug Administration jointly oversee the production of human food products made with cultured cells derived from livestock or poultry. FSIS samples cell-cultured meat and poultry food products, food contact surface swabs, and environmental swabs to verify establishment food safety programs and assess process control.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service collaborates with a variety of federal and state partners on sampling programs to advance food safety goals. For its microbiological testing initiatives, in fiscal year 2025, FSIS plans to collect 20,513 raw beef, 2,196 raw pork, and 36,609 raw poultry samples; 17,839 egg samples; 5,090 NARMS cecal samples; 180 cell-cultured samples; and 5,604 samples. This totals 88,031 samples, 2,123 less than fiscal year 2024. 

For chemical residue testing initiatives, FSIS plans to collect 12,400 samples, including 752 beef cows, 400 bob veal, 340 dairy cows, 340 heifers, 328 steer, 788 sows, 728 market swine, 388 young chickens, 388 young turkeys, 100 sheep, 100 lamb, 300 goats, 150 veal, 100 egg products, 200 Siluriformes, 300 NRP state-inspected establishment samples, 2,250 imports, and 4,000 kidney inhibition swabs.

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