A
case of Salmonella found in jerky being made in
a plant in New Mexico is creating big problems for jerky-makers,
upsetting years of tradition. AAMP has contacted USDA
and protested planned Agency action to force jerky-makers
to totally revise the smokehouse schedules that they use
to make the meat product. AAMP wrote a letter to FSIS
Acting Administrator Dr. Barbara Masters raising concerns
about what jerky-makers are being told to do by their USDA
inspectors and by FSIS Consumer Safety Officers (CSOs).
The
manufacturers of this product are being told by FSIS that
they must follow the Agency's Appendix A
guidance, which sets requirements for lethality for heat-treated
products, and that their smokehouses must reach a humidity
level of 90 percent. AAMP is concerned that plants
have followed in Appendix A for cooked
products for years as part of their HACCP plans, but now
the rules are being changed. It will be difficult,
virtually impossible, for small jerky-making establishments
to meet those requirements. USDA says what it is asking
jerky processors to do are not new "regulations,"
but instead ways to make sure that their smokehouses are
reaching a log reduction high enough to kill Salmonella.
One
thing jerky-makers are concerned about is that some compliance
guidelines already published by FSIS pose alternatives for
the product manufacturing that would result in a something
quite different from jerky. Officials from the FSIS
Policy Office said that new compliance guidelines are being
developed, and would be published on the FSIS web site by
May 7. The policy people are checking to see if smokehouses
would be considered "sealed" even if a small amount
of steam is escaping from the equipment. They have
also indicated that a dry bulb can be wrapped in a wet sock
to test for humidity in the smokehouse, rather than having
to buy a wet bulb thermometer. We'll let you know
what we think of the new USDA guidelines for jerky when
they are released by the Agency. |
