As the COVID-19 pandemic lingers on, some people are becoming lax in three areas that are critical to decreasing the spread of the COVID-19 virus: face masks, social distancing and handwashing.

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. 

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the United States, the meat industry increasingly faces the potential of pandemic-related economic and legal threats. 

What if the key to improving food safety in thermal processing — heating, cooking and smoking — is more water?

Employee hygiene in packing plants is now not just about protecting food, but protecting employees.

Traditional processing of summer sausage applies lower fermentation pH values (≤4.6) and higher thermal treatments after fermentation to meet U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) performance standards for E. coli O157:H7 lethality (5D process; decimal reduction dose).

While listening to an inspiring podcast recently, the speaker made an impact on my view of the unusual times we as a global community have recently encountered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Approximately 7 billion hot dogs are eaten between Memorial Day and Labor Day each year with 150 million eaten on July 4 alone, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (NHDSC).

The three main components of pre-harvest intervention — probiotics and prebiotics in animal feed, pathogen resistance through vaccines or antimicrobials, and biosecurity protocols — all work together to reduce foodborne pathogens in beef, poultry and pork. Each operation, however, has to tinker with the formula to create its ideal solution.