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Food Safety and Inspection Service

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Food Safety and Inspection Service:

Overview – Raw Pork Products Exploratory Sampling Project (RPPESP)

• RPPESP Phase I

– Design

– Results

• Transitional Exploratory Sampling

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RPPESP Phase I 

(May 2015 – November 2015)
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Raw Pork Products Exploratory Sampling Program (RPPESP)

Purpose of Phase I or “shakedown” phase:

• To inform the sampling design of the baseline 

study by:

• Collecting data on the presence of Salmonella, other 

pathogens, and indicator organisms in various pork 

products to help inform risk assessment and policy 

decisions

• Determine what microbiological hazards may be of 

concern in pork products

• Testing sample collection methods and logistics (i.e. 

supplies, shipping, etc.) 

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Phase I – Study Design

• Raw Pork Products Exploratory Study Project (RPPESP) - Phase I 

– Duration: May 2015 – November 2015 (1200 samples collected)

– Project Codes and Products: 

• EXP_PK_ICT01: Intact Cuts (Including bone-in and boneless)

• EXP_PK_IOT01: Intact Other

• EXP_PK_NCT01: Non-intact Cuts (Including bone-in and boneless)

• EXP_PK_NOT01: Non-intact Other

• EXP_PK_COM01: Comminuted (Ground; Other Comminuted; Advanced Meat 

Recovery; Mechanically Separated; and Sausage, patties, or other formed 

products)

– Microbiological targets included: 

• All samples were analyzed for Salmonella (1200 samples)

• Subset of 200 samples also analyzed for: Campylobacter, Toxoplasma gondii, 

Yersinia enterocolitica, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Shiga toxin- producing E. coli and four indicator bacteria (Aerobic Plate Count (APC), 

Enterobacteriaceae, coliforms, and generic E. coli)

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Phase I – Product Groups Sampled

• Raw pork products collected from federal 

establishments producing 1,000 lbs or more a day of:

– Comminuted (ground pork, sausage, AMR, etc.)

– Intact cuts (tray ready cuts from primals, etc. that have not 

been needle/blade tenderized, injected, etc.)

– Intact other (feet, neck bones, cutlets, etc. that have not 

been needle/blade tenderized, injected, etc.)

– Non-intact cuts (cuts from primals, etc. that have been 

needle/blade tenderized, injected, etc.)

– Non-intact other (feet, neck bones, cutlets, etc. that have 

been needle/blade tenderized, injected, etc.)

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Phase I – Salmonella Results

Pork

Project Code Pork Product Type

Phase I Salmonella

% Positive by Project Code

(May 2015 – Nov 2015)

EXP_PK_COM01 Comminuted 21.0%

(136/649)

EXP_PK_ICT01 Intact Cuts

11.9%

(38/320)

EXP_PK_IOT01 Intact Other

18.7%

(17/91)

EXP_PK_NCT01 Non-Intact Cuts

5.0%

(3/60)

EXP_PK_NOT01 Non-Intact Other 7.5%

(6/80)

Total 16.7%

(200/1,200)

The data represents samples collected from May through November 2015 and was pulled from the FSIS LIMS database on 

March 16, 2016. 
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Pork

Project

Jowls Shoulder Belly Loin Ham (leg) Total

Positive / 

Analyzed

Positive/ 

Analyzed

Positive/ 

Analyzed

Positive/ 

Analyzed

Positive/

Analyzed

Positive/

Analyzed

% Positive % Positive % Positive % Positive % Positive % Positive

Intact Cuts 7/16

43.8%

11/70

15.7%

4/16

25.0%

12/190

6.3%

4/28

14.3%

38/320

11.9%

Intact Other 1/5

20.0%

8/33

24.2%

2/15

13.3%

1/21

4.8%

5/17

29.4%

17/91

18.7%

Non-intact 

Cuts

0/1

0.0%

0/6

0.0%

0/4

0.0%

3/46

6.5%

0/3

0.0%

3/60

5.0%

Non-intact 

Other

0/5

0.0%

3/25

12.0%

1/9

11.1%

0/28

0.0%

2/13

15.4%

6/80

7.5%

Total 8/27

29.6%

11/134

8.2%

7/44

15.9%

16/285

5.6%

11/61

18.0%

64 /551

11.6%

This data represents samples collected from May through November 2015 and was pulled from the FSIS LIMS database on 8

March 16, 2016.

Phase I Salmonella % Positive by Primal Part
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Indicator Bacteria Comminuted Intact 

Cuts

Intact 

Other

NonIntact 

Cuts

NonIntact 

Other

APC 13,890 4,398 6,755 3,152 12,985

Enterobacteriaceae 578 336 714 281 363

Coliforms 154 83 185 83 75

generic E.coli 43 31 50 36 37

This data represents samples collected from May through November 2015 and was pulled from the FSIS LIMS database on 

March 16, 2016.

Phase I - Indicator Bacteria Geometric Mean (MPN/g) by Pork Product 
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Additional Analytes

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This data represents samples collected from May through November 2015 and was pulled from the FSIS LIMS database on 

March 16, 2016.

Pork

Project Code

Product

Type

Total 

Samples

Campylobacter MRSA

Positives % Positive Positives % Positive

EXP_PK_COM01 Comminuted 112 1 0.9% 6 5.4%

EXP_PK_ICT01 Intact Cuts 53 1 1.9% 3 5.7%

EXP_PK_IOT01 Intact Other 28 0 0.0% 0 0.0%

EXP_PK_NCT01 Non-Intact Cuts 1 0 0.0% 0 0.0%

EXP_PK_NOT01 Non-Intact Other 6 0 0.0% 0 0.0%

Total 200 2 1.0% 9 4.5%
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Additional Analytes - Continued

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This data represents samples collected from May through November 2015 and was pulled from the FSIS LIMS database on 

March 16, 2016.

Pork

Project Code

Product

Type

Total 

Samples

Toxoplasma gondii Yersinia enterocolitica

Positives % Positive Positives % Positive

EXP_PK_COM01 Comminuted 112 2 1.8% 1 0.9%

EXP_PK_ICT01 Intact Cuts 53 0 0.0% 2 3.8%

EXP_PK_IOT01 Intact Other 28 0 0.0% 0 0.0%

EXP_PK_NCT01 Non-Intact Cuts 1 0 0.0% 0 0.0%

EXP_PK_NOT01 Non-Intact Other 6 0 0.0% 0 0.0%

Total 200 2 1.0% 3 1.5%
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Additional Analytes - STECs

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This data represents samples collected from May through November 2015 and was pulled from the FSIS LIMS database on 

March 16, 2016.

Pork

Project Code

Product

Type

Total 

Samples

E. coli O157:H7 Non-O157 STECS 

Positives % Positive Positives % Positive

EXP_PK_COM01 Comminuted 112 0 0.0% 6 5.4%

EXP_PK_ICT01 Intact Cuts 53 0 0.0% 4 7.6%

EXP_PK_IOT01 Intact Other 28 0 0.0% 0 0.0%

EXP_PK_NCT01 Non-Intact Cuts 1 0 0.0% 0 0.0%

EXP_PK_NOT01 Non-Intact Other 6 0 0.0% 0 0.0%

Total 200 0 0.0% 10 5.0%
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Phase I – STEC serogroups detected

Distribution of STECs by serogroup:

This data represents samples collected from May through November 2015 and was pulled from the FSIS LIMS database on 

March 16, 2016.

Products

Pos/Total

(% Pos) O26 O45 O103 O111 O121 O145 O157:H7

Comminuted 6/112

(5.4%) 1 5 1 1 1 3 0

Intact Cuts 4/53

(7.6%) 2 3 3 1 3 3 0

Overall Total 10/165 

(6.1%) 3 8 4 2 4 6 0
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Transitional Exploratory Sampling

(January 2016 – May 2017)
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• FSIS needed time to analyze the data obtained during the first phase of 

sampling before the baseline study could be designed and implemented 

• After the first phase of sampling was completed, FSIS implemented a 

transitional exploratory sampling phase from January 2016 through May 

2017

• Transitional sampling continued to be assigned and collected under Phase 

I project codes for the same product types

• The differences between Phase I sampling and transitional sampling 

include:

– Phase I samples were analyzed by a third party contract laboratory 

– Transitional samples were analyzed by FSIS

– Phase I samples included a sub-set of samples (200) that included analytes in 

addition to Salmonella

– Transitional samples were analyzed for Salmonella only

– Data obtained from Phase I was utilized to design the baseline study

– Data obtained from transitional sampling was not utilized to design the 

baseline study; however, FSIS will use this information to inform pork 

Salmonella policies

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Transitional Exploratory Sampling
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Pork

Project Code Pork Product Type

Transitional Salmonella

% Positive by Project Code

(Jan 2016 – May 2017)

EXP_PK_COM01 Comminuted

23.0%

(460/1,997)

EXP_PK_ICT01 Intact Cuts

14.4%

(202/1,403)

EXP_PK_IOT01 Intact Other

23.9%

(168/703)

EXP_PK_NCT01 Non-Intact Cuts

9.7%

(38/393)

EXP_PK_NOT01 Non-Intact Other

14.2%

(47/330)

Total

19.0 %

(915/4,826)

The data represents samples collected from January 2016 through May 2017 and was pulled from the FSIS data warehouse on 

June 29, 2017.

Transitional Exploratory Sampling Results