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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 128 / Thursday, July 8, 2021 / Notices
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food Safety and Inspection Service Docket No. FSIS20140034

Availability of Revised Compliance Guidelines for Controlling Salmonella and Campylobacter in Raw Poultry Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of availability and response to comments.
AGENCY:

The Food Safety and Inspection Service FSIS is announcing the availability of revised guidelines to assist poultry establishments in controlling Salmonella and Campylobacter in raw poultry. The Agency has revised the content of the guidelines in light of new scientific and technical information, public comments received on the 2015 guideline, and the Agencys decision to issue two separate guidelinesone on controlling Salmonella and the other on controlling Campylobacter. The guidelines provide best practice recommendations that poultry establishments may follow to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination of raw products.
ADDRESSES: Downloadable versions of the revised guidelines are available at https www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/
fsis/topics/regulatory-compliance/
guidelines. The Agency has not published hard copies of these documents.
SUMMARY:

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Rachel A. Edelstein, Assistant Administrator, Office of Policy and Program Development, FSIS; Telephone:
202 2050495.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

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Background On December 16, 2015, FSIS
published a Federal Register notice 80
FR 78166 announcing the availability of and opportunity to comment on a revised Agency compliance guideline for controlling Salmonella and Campylobacter in raw poultry. This revision was the fourth edition of the guideline the Agency had developed to assist establishments that slaughter or process raw poultry products to minimize or prevent the risk of Salmonella and Campylobacter in their operations.
Updated Guidelines FSIS has updated the guideline contents to reflect the most recent best practices, supported by current peerreviewed literature and analyses of FSIS
data. Updates include information on
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using neutralizing agents in sampling to prevent carryover of antimicrobial substances and a current list of antimicrobials for establishment use.
Also included are improvements in the information on pre-harvest practices, with a comprehensive revision of the litter/bedding section. With the updated information, establishments of various sizes and configurations have practical options for reducing and inhibiting the growth of pathogens commonly found in raw poultry.
In response to the comments, FSIS
also reviewed the recommendations in the previous version of the guideline and assessed each section for utility and effectiveness. The resulting changes include a complete revision of the sections on litter and bedding and updates to FSIS data on the rate at which Salmonella or Campylobacter contamination can be attributed to source materials of different composition. Also, the Agency is now issuing the revised document as two separate guidelines, one focused on control of Salmonella, and the other on Campylobacter. The guidelines are posted at https www.fsis.usda.gov/
policy/fsis-guidelines. Although comments will no longer be accepted through regulations.gov on these guidelines, FSIS will update these documents as necessary if new information becomes available.
Comments and Responses FSIS received fifteen comments in response to the December 16, 2015, Federal Register notice and guideline.
The commenters included consumer and industry associations, individuals, and firms that specialize in providing technology and services to the regulated industry. The comments and the Agencys responses, discussed below, have been grouped by topic area.
Pre-Harvest Comment: A poultry industry association remarked that considerations and sampling for Salmonella and Campylobacter should not affect the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point HACCP system of the receiving establishment. The same association stated that, while good husbandry practices are important, the goal of obtaining pathogen-free flocks and many of the recommendations for doing so are unrealistic and unnecessary. According to the association, the Agency should revise the discussion of pre-harvest practices in the guideline to reflect currently available, commercially proven methods that can be practically implemented.

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Response: Information about preharvest conditions and particularly, pathogen levels on incoming flocks, can inform the establishments hazard analysis and decisions on controls to include in its HACCP plan. In the guideline, FSIS acknowledges that there may be no single pre-harvest intervention that eliminates Salmonella and Campylobacter as pre-harvest hazards. The Agency recommends instead a multi-hurdle approach involving successive interventions that can have a cumulative effect in reducing the pathogen contamination of birds.
The Agency has modified some language in the pre-harvest section of the guideline to reflect current scientific literature.
Comment: The poultry industry association said that another area of concern is the recommendation to change bedding between each flock.
According to the poultry industry association, that is not always the best way to control Salmonella growth because new litter can be a bigger risk factor for Salmonella than old litter, depending on the pH profile involved.
The poultry industry association argued that the section on transportation crate maintenance is similarly impractical.
Response: Litter, or bedding, can be considered a potential reservoir for contamination with Salmonella and other pathogens. The presence or absence of contamination in litter is among the pre-harvest conditions of which a prudent establishment should be aware, along with clean transport crates. FSIS has updated the pre-harvest and transportation sections of the guideline with practical suggestions, based on informative studies, and also updated the section on scheduled slaughter taking account of pathogen loads on incoming flocks.
Sanitation Comment: An animal health and foodsafety technology and services provider recommended changes in the guideline discussion of cleaning procedures by adding, after the removal of debris, drypickup of gross soils and pre-rinsing to remove remaining soil before using a cleaning agent, such as a detergent. This commenter also recommended that the guideline include a table provided by the commenter showing the factors to consider when choosing a sanitizer for a particular application.
Response: FSIS has accepted the recommended edits to the discussion of cleaning procedures in the sanitation section. The Agency has also removed some outdated references that the commenter noted and added the table of sanitizer characteristics.

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