USDA Revamps Drug Residue Testing Program
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection
Service (FSIS) has issued a July 6, 2012, notice announcing its decision to
restructure its National Residue Program to permit more extensive compound
testing of meat, poultry and egg products. According to FSIS, the revamped
program aims to reduce the number of samples analyzed while allowing the
agency to assess more compounds per sample using improved multi-residue
methods. In particular, these methods will enable FSIS to screen for pesticides
and environmental contaminants as well as legal and illegal veterinary drugs
such as antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and growth promoters.
“Under the new system, one sample may be tested for as many as 55 pesticide chemicals, 9 kinds of antibiotics, various metals, and eventually more than 50 other chemicals,” explained the agency in a July 2 press release, which noted that the previous program required FSIS to collect one sample per animal and to isolate just one chemical at a time. “If an establishment has samples containing illegal residue levels, FSIS will notify the Food and Drug Administration, which may review practices of producers supplying the establishment with livestock or poultry, and FSIS may subject the establishment to increased testing and review.”
Slated to take effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, the new
procedures will also increase the annual number of samples per slaughter
class from 300 to 800. As a result, FSIS has estimated that in 2012 it will run
“6,400 samples through 12 multi-residue methods across nine production
classes of meat and poultry, which represent 95 percent of the meat and
poultry consumed domestically.” These classes will evidently cover “Bob Veal,
Beef Cows, Dairy Cows, Steers, Heifers, Market Swine, Sows, Young Chicken,
and Young Turkey,” with the agency anticipating that “Bob Veal, Beef Cows,
and Sows may show some increase in violations, while Dairy Cows, Steers,
Heifers, Market Swine, Young Chicken, and Young Turkey may show no change
in violations.” FSIS has thus invited interested parties to submit comments on
the planned changes via mail or the federal eRulemaking Portal.
