Once again, the government’s battle to eradicate E. coli O157:H7 (and other non-O157:H7 STECs) from the nation’s beef supply is heating up. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recently announced that, in order to better identify and contain raw beef products that may be contaminated, the agency is making additional changes to its traceback policy.
For starters, FSIS will begin requiring grocery stores that regrind and then repackage ground beef products in the back of the store to maintain sufficient grind records, showing the raw source materials for each and every grind. In the past, if ground beef purchased from a grocery store tested positive and the grocery store had multiple suppliers but did not maintain any grind records to show which supplier’s raw materials where used in which grinds, FSIS was unable able to determine the specific facility from which the source materials originated. Under the new policy, FSIS will in every case be able to make this determination.