Last month, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) published the final rule for the New Swine Slaughter Inspection System (NSIS), a rule that requires additional pathogen sampling for swine slaughter establishments and eliminates the numbers of FSIS inspectors, with a goal toward modernizing swine slaughter safety and more efficiently utilizing agency resources.
Pursuant to the new rule, establishments must enhance Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plans, Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOPs), and other preventative controls to minimize contamination throughout the production process. Establishments must also prove the measures are effective in controlling illness-causing pathogens. Additionally, and most controversially, establishments will have the option to give their employees certain tasks historically performed by FSIS inspectors; however, FSIS inspectors would continue to conduct 100 percent of ante-mortem and carcass inspections.