Meat and Poultry Residues
The Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is accepting comments through Aug. 26 on its updated guideline for the prevention of violative residues in meat and poultry slaughter establishments.
FSIS administers the U.S. National Residue Program to collect data on chemical residues in imported and domestic meat, poultry, and egg products and to keep products that are adulterated because of illegal residues out of commerce. FSIS collects samples of meat, poultry, and egg products at appropriate establishments and analyzes these samples to verify that the establishments maintain adequate residue control in their Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point systems.
FSIS has now updated its guideline for residue prevention for the first time in more than ten years to reflect up-to-date science, incorporate new information on documentation that can be used to support that violative residues are not reasonably likely, and make other changes.
Poultry Imports
Effective June 19 the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has imposed the following restrictions on importations from or transiting the state of New South Wales in Australia based on a determination that highly-pathogenic avian influenza exists in domestic birds in this area.
- Imports of unprocessed avian products and byproducts originating from or transiting this area are prohibited.
- Imports of poultry, commercial birds, ratites, and hatching eggs from this area are prohibited.
- Processed avian products and byproducts originating from or transiting this area, imported as cargo, must be accompanied by an APHIS import permit and/or government certification confirming that the products were treated according to APHIS requirements.
- Importation as cargo of fresh, unprocessed shell/table eggs and other egg products, void of the shell (i.e., liquid eggs, dried egg whites), originating from or transiting this area is prohibited unless the products are consigned from the port of arrival directly to an APHIS-approved breaking and pasteurization facility. An import permit and/or certificate is not required for these shipments when consigned directly to an APHIS-approved establishment.
Separately, effective June 20 APHIS has removed restrictions on imports of poultry, commercial birds, ratites, avian hatching eggs, unprocessed avian products and byproducts, and certain fresh poultry products originating from or transiting zone PCZ-223 in Alberta, Canada.
Potato and Tomato Imports
APHIS announced June 25 updated requirements for facilities that export to the U.S. hosts of the bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum race 3 biovar 2 (Rs R3bv2), which primarily include geraniums as well as plants in the genus Solanum, which includes tomatoes and potatoes.
Rs R3bv2 is a select agent under the Agricultural Bioterrorism Protection Act of 2002 due to the risks it poses to the U.S. potato and tomato industries, and APHIS regulates the importation of host commodities to protect U.S. agriculture and natural resources from the introduction of quarantine plant pathogens. In 2005 APHIS established a certification program for articles of Pelargonium spp. and Solanum spp. (including hybrids) imported from countries where Rs R3bv2 is known to occur.
APHIS now states that participants in this program must begin implementing the Ralstonia Exclusion Program’s framework requirements by Oct. 1 before their certification or recertification for the 2024-2025 season. This framework provides unified offshore facility standards to address Rs R3bv2 for all propagative hosts, improves sanitation and testing measures, clarifies roles and responsibilities of all program participants, and provides updated standard operating procedures to execute following an Rs R3bv2 detection.
Program participants who are unable to meet updated requirements in time for the 2024-2025 season may request a deviation from the REP, but requests must be received at least two months before the facility certification or recertification audit.
Ginseng from Korea
APHIS has announced that, beginning June 24, fresh ginseng roots from South Korea may be authorized for importation into the U.S., subject to specified phytosanitary measures that will be listed here.
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