January 26-27, 2011
Georgia World Congress Center
Atlanta, GA
8:30 am-noon each day
To further reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry, USDA/FSIS has proposed new performance standards for these pathogens. Prior to the new policies, establishments were expected to achieve less than 20% Salmonella positives on chilled carcasses, and there were no requirements for testing Campylobacter. In 2008, USDA/FSIS began placing poultry facilities into categories based on their history of Salmonella testing, with the overall goal of further reducing Salmonella levels.
The new goal of USDA/FSIS is to significantly reduce Salmonella and start testing for Campylobacter. The goal is for Campylobacter levels to have no more than 8 (10.4%) test positives from the 1 mL samples, or 27 (46.7%) of the set test positive when the 1 mL results and 30 mL results are combined. Up to this point, the poultry industry has not generally monitored Campylobacter levels.
Since 2008, there have been vast improvements in industry practices and antimicrobial strategies to help decrease Salmonella levels in poultry. This conference will bring together industry, government, and academia to discuss changes in industry practices and to share updates on research and policy initiatives. In addition, the results of a pre-conference survey of current industry practices to control Salmonella and Campylobacter will be presented.
Additional presentations will address the importance of bio-mapping, validation, and HACCP approaches in pathogen control in first and second processing. As the entire poultry industry will be affected by the new regulatory requirements, it is extremely important that poultry establishments understand the changes and have the best practices to achieve them.
For more information or to register for this important conference, go to www.ipe11.org
Source: North American Meat Processors Association
