On October 24, 2024, the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued Directive 9900.6 revising the Laboratory Sampling Plan for imported Meat, Poultry, and Egg Products. Key elements include:

(1) Inclusion of all imported meat, poultry, egg products, and catfish laboratory sampling in the program, which also includes Shigella and Salmonella testing of fresh beef, Salmonella and Campylobacter testing of fresh poultry, and Salmonella testing of fresh pork, and clarifies that ground beef is to be sampled by the surface smear method;

(2) imported product packaging instructions are consistent with domestic product packaging instructions;

(3) Egg products transported by tanker trucks are recognized for Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes test results issued by accredited laboratories in the importing country;

(4) FSIS Directive 99006.6, Laboratory Sampling of imported Meat, Poultry, and Egg Products, issued March 11, 2015, and FSIS Directive 14100.1, Corporate Sampling of imported Catfish, issued March 10, 2022, are revoked.

For more details see: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/policy/fsis-directives/9900.6