Meat Industry News: FSIS Expands RTE Listeria Sampling, PHIS NR/MOI Updates & Farm Bill 2.0 Status
bymeatpeople
Brittany Moore and Lacey Bates review key meat industry updates, including FSIS’s expanded Listeria environmental sampling in ready-to-eat (RTE) establishments producing post-lethality exposed products. After a pilot in Raleigh, Chicago, and Alameda adding four environmental swabs (two food contact and two non-food contact), FSIS will expand sampling across all nine districts in phases starting January 2027 to improve early detection of sanitation deficiencies and areas where Listeria can persist; positives may trigger follow-up verification testing or food safety assessments. They also cover recent FSIS PHIS updates affecting noncompliance records (NRs), memos of interview (MOIs), and appeals, including new numbering for records created after September 18 and new functions such as requesting finalized versions after changes. Finally, they discuss Farm Bill 2.0 negotiations as the 2018 Farm Bill extension expires Sept. 30, noting MCOOL for beef as a key House-Senate difference.
