The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Food Safety (OFS) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has a plan to decrease Salmonella, one of the leading causes of foodborne illnesses.

The Roadmap to Reducing Salmonella: Driving Change through Science-based Policy outlines programs and policies that are science based, data driven, and promote innovation to reduce Salmonella in meat, poultry, and egg products.

“This roadmap represents FSIS’s commitment to lead with science and data in all that we do. It puts us on a course to aggressively target Salmonella and other foodborne pathogens,” said USDA’s Under Secretary for Food Safety Mindy Brashears. “I look forward to a continued partnership with the food safety community in driving a science-based approach to protecting public health.”

OFS and FSIS will discuss the Salmonella roadmap at a virtual public meeting next week. Also scheduled to participate  in the meeting are the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The public meeting continues Under-Secretary Brashears’ vision of building relationships, influencing behavior change, and leading with science to enhance food safety.

Stakeholders are invited to participate in the public meeting and comment on the Salmonella roadmap and on the science that drives FSIS’ Salmonella reduction efforts. The public meeting has reached its capacity for oral comments. Interested parties can still submit written comments on or before Sept. 25, 2020, at http://www.regulations.gov.

The Sept. 22 public meeting is set for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EDT. The meeting is virtual and will be viewed via the Webex link provided by email upon registration for the meeting. There is no fee to register for the public meeting, but preregistration is mandatory for participants to attend. More information is available at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/meetings.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is USDA’s public health unit responsible for ensuring the safety of commercially produced meat, poultry, and egg products.  It draws authority from the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906, the Poultry Products Inspection Act of 1957 and the Egg Products Inspection Act of 1970.