USDA Tightens Standards for Ground Beef in Schools

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has set new standards for ground beef purchased by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) for federal food and nutrition assistance programmes, including the National School Lunch Program.

The new standards will tighten microbiological testing protocols and stiffen the microbiological upper specification and critical limits.

The standards will also increase microbiological sampling frequency for finished products to every 15min and institute additional rejection criteria for source trimmings used to manufacture AMS-purchased ground beef.

The requirements will be applicable to AMS ground beef contracts awarded on or after 1 July 2010, the FDA said.

The AMS will also consider any vendor classified by FSIS as having a long-term poor safety record as an ineligible vendor until a complete cause-and-effect analysis is completed.