Dive Brief:
- The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service is proposing new rules to require every company that makes raw ground beef products keep detailed, written records of sources, materials, equipment-cleaining schedules, and more.
- The move is aimed at making it easier for the FSIS to trace the source of foodborne illnesses.
- The new requirements go well beyond FSIS' existing regulations on meat processors and would also pertain to retailers, including delis, supermarkets, and warehouse clubs.
Dive Insight:
The FSIS said that it has "concluded that record-keeping by retail facilities that grind raw beef to date has not been sufficiently effective." Given how often it seems there is news about yet another outbreak of foodborne illnesses, it's hard to argue with that.
It is, however, quite easy to argue with the scope of the proposed rules. For reasons that are unexplained, the FSIS' proposed new traceability regulations that pertain only to beef, not ground poultry or pork.