On June 4, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS, or the agency) published a Federal Register notice, Expansion of Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli Testing to Additional Raw Beef Products. The notice announces that FSIS proposes to expand its routine verification testing to include testing for the six non-O157 Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) identified as adulterants in ground beef, bench trim and raw ground beef components other than raw beef manufacturing trimmings (head and cheek, heart , partially defatted beef and lean finely textured beef, for example).
Currently, FSIS tests raw beef manufacturing trimmings, ground beef, bench trim and other raw ground beef for E. coli O157:H7, whereas non-O157 STEC tests are only used for samples of raw beef manufacturing trimmings. When FSIS mandated its STEC testing program in 2012, the agency was concerned there was not adequate laboratory testing capacity to test for non-O157 STEC in the other products. Under FSIS’ proposal, the same samples that are tested for E. coli O157:H7 will also be tested for non-O157 STEC.