National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection hosts public meeting

The National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection will host a two-day public meeting to review and discuss strengthening agency verification activities pertaining to veal and categorizing FSIS regulations as public health regulations.
According to Food Safety and Inspection Service test results, veal trimmings and ground beef produced from veal have a higher percentage of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli than do trimmings and ground beef produced from other cattle classes. FSIS is seeking feedback from the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection on improvements the agency can make to its verification activities of sanitary dressing and interventions and its compliance guidance in addressing veal slaughter operations. FSIS is also seeking feedback from committee on outreach strategies for communicating with the veal industry. FSIS has also revised its criteria for identifying regulations that are most closely related to public health outcomes and is seeking input from the committee on the criteria and feedback on the proposed approach.
The meeting will be held January 16-17, 2013, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. Registration will begin on site at 8:30 a.m. each day.

FSIS welcomes comments through January 12, 2013, on the topics discussed at the public meeting. Comments may be submitted via email to: nacmpi@fsis.usda.gov or by mail to: National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection, USDA, FSIS, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Mail Stop 3778, Washington, DC 20250 or submitted via fax at: +1.202.690.6519.