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STRATEGIC PERFORMANCE WORKING GROUP 

SALMONELLA ACTION PLAN

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has an increasing amount of performance information and data available. 

Recurring critical reviews of the information and data will allow the agency to identify deficiencies and successes that 

warrant particular attention. The FSIS Administrator established the Strategic Performance Working Group (SPWG) to 

perform such critical performance reviews and to solicit and coordinate ideas within the Agency on how to improve 

agency performance. 

The SPWG focused its first series of activities on identifying potential interventions or actions to decrease FSISattributable Salmonellosis. It decided on that focus because: 1) Salmonella is the pathogen that contributes the most to 

the FSIS’s ‘All-Illness’ performance measure; and 2) since the All Illness Measure was created, Salmonella illness 

estimates have continued at a steady high or slightly increased rate despite FSIS interventions. 

To gather ideas about actions FSIS could take to decrease Salmonellosis, the SPWG hosted a series of agency

teleconferences and an interactive blog with participation by FSIS personnel throughout the agency. On the basis of the 

ideas and input received via those teleconferences and the blog, the SPWG developed this priority list of actions the 

agency plans to undertake.1

1. Proposed Poultry Slaughter Rule

Although not a part of the work of the SPWG, FSIS has proposed a modernization of poultry slaughter 

inspection. This proposal is very important with respect to the Agency’s efforts on Salmonella because 

FSIS estimates that the modernization in inspection activities is likely to result in a reduction of at least

4,286 Salmonella illnesses per year in the United States (Q3 FY2014). 

2. Sampling Related Activities

To ensure that FSIS’ sampling is in line with current and emerging trends in foodborne illness, FSIS will 

undertake the following actions, which are consistent with the agency’s data-driven approach to 

preventing illnesses outlined in Food Safety and Inspection Service’s Annual Sampling Program Plan 

Microbiological and Residue Sampling Programs Fiscal Year 2014:

• test comminuted poultry in order to generate data for a new performance standard (ongoing);

• continue to investigate whether there are products currently not subject to sampling that should be

and that, therefore, are not being evaluated according to the performance standards (> 1 year); and

• explore developing a Salmonella sampling program for pork products (e.g., ground pork and other 

comminuted pork), including generating a performance standard (begin Q2 FY2014).2

3. Develop New In Plant Strategies

Providing inspection program personnel (IPP) with information about an establishment’s performance 

could help the IPP assess the establishment’s overall performance, point toward areas of concern and 

provide the basis for enforcement action if necessary. Therefore, FSIS will:

• develop a directive and training for inspection staff on how to assess developing in-plant conditions 

that may indicate a problem in adequately addressing Salmonella (> 1 year);

 1 In addition to the ideas gathered, to provide the overall breadth of the agency’s actions of decrease Salmonellosis, this

Salmonella Action Plan includes items that FSIS had already committed to doing. The timeframe (short, medium or long term) 

for each action is included in parentheses.

2 Outbreak data indicate that pork products contribute to Salmonella illnesses. FSIS stopped sampling pork carcasses because 

the percent of pork carcass samples positive for Salmonella was consistently very low. Pork products are not currently 

sampled for Salmonella testing.
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• consider adding an establishment’s Salmonella category to the establishment profile in the Public 

Health Information System (PHIS) so IPP will have information about the overall performance of the 

facility and how to focus their actions (> 1 year);

• consider whether to include a summary of an establishment’s performance on public health 

noncompliance records (NRs) in the establishment PHIS profile, and whether additional aspects of

PHIS’ functionality (e.g., alerts) could help focus IPP activities (> 1 year);

• initiate food safety assessments (FSAs) in comminuted poultry operations (Q4 FY2014);

• complete the analysis of the 30 establishments where Hazard Analysis Verifications (HAVs) are 

currently implemented and, depending on the findings from those analyses, expand the 

implementation of HAVs in poultry operations (Q2 FY2014).

4. Develop a Directive for Sanitary Dressing in Hogs

There is evidence from outbreak data that pork products contribute to Salmonella illnesses. Decreasing 

sanitary dressing problems in hog slaughter establishments, particularly related to removing the skin, 

could decrease a source of Salmonella on carcasses. FSIS does not currently have a directive for 

verification activities related to sanitary dressing in hog slaughter establishments. Therefore, FSIS will

• publish a directive that provides instructions to FSIS inspection personnel on the verification activities 

related to sanitary dressing procedures in hog slaughter operations (Q4 FY2014).

5. Consider Modifying How we Post Salmonella Categories

Data indicate that posting the names of broiler and turkey establishments that are in Category 3 for 

Salmonella set results led to improved control of Salmonella in those establishments. FSIS ceased webposting of Category 2 establishments as of June 2011. Data collected by the Agency since then, however, 

do not show continuous improvement in industry performance, and FSIS believes that making more 

information about the process control performance of these establishments available will provide a 

valuable incentive for industry to improve process control. Therefore, FSIS will:

• continue to collect data on the performance of establishments under the Salmonella performance 

standards for young chicken and turkey carcasses implemented in 2011 (ongoing); 

• continue to collect data on whether the current performance will produce the reduction in illnesses 

that the Agency predicted when it adopted the standards (ongoing); and

• depending on what it finds from the above two bullets, consider posting Category 2, and perhaps 

Category 1, establishments in addition to Category 3 establishments on its website; changes to 

posting would be announced in the Federal Register (Q4 FY2014).

6. Other Performance Standard Related Activities

Healthy People 2020 Goals and FSIS’ strategic goals include a reduction in the illnesses attributable to 

FSIS-regulated products. Linking Salmonella performance standards to those goals and focusing activities 

on improving the performance of establishments relative to those standards could move the agency 

closer to those goals. To that end, FSIS will:

• complete a risk assessment and develop standards for comminuted poultry products (Q4 FY2014);

• complete a risk assessment and develop standards for poultry parts (Q4 FY2014);

• develop standards and, if needed, sampling programs for hog carcasses and pork products (> 1 year);

• develop performance standards that are linked to Healthy People 2020 Goals, that could incorporate 

the concept of the moving window3 depending on public comments, and announce them in the 

Federal Register (begin Q4 FY2014); and

 3 A “moving window” sampling plan is one in which FSIS would evaluate a set number of sequential results from a single 

establishment to assess process control. For example, if FSIS chose to evaluate 20 results under the moving window 
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• consider implementing new performance standards that could target FSIS testing in establishments 

with poor performance for sanitary dressing until two mini-sets show a level of control equal to a 

Category 1 establishment (> 1 year).

7. Develop New Enforcement Strategies

FSIS needs new enforcement strategies that take a systems or overall process control approach and link 

NR histories, Salmonella categories under the performance standards, and sanitary dressing findings.

Therefore, FSIS is:

• looking at enforcement and NR history, including looking at what establishments have been in 

Category 3 for many years without any enforcement actions, to determine if there is a way to link to 

sanitary dressing problems and Salmonella issues (> 1 year). 

8. Explore the Contribution of Lymph Nodes to Salmonella Contamination

Some data, including research results from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), indicate that lymph 

nodes could be a source of Salmonella contamination. In addition, data from the Agricultural Marketing 

Service (AMS) might help determine the effects of lymph nodes on contamination. Therefore, FSIS will:

• identify, in coordination with ARS, the available research on lymph nodes (Q4 FY2014);

• explore whether AMS data, combined with FSIS data, could provide information about the effects of 

lymph nodes on Salmonella contamination (Q4 FY2014); and

• reach out to work with industry to determine the extent of the problem of Salmonella from lymph 

nodes and to identify possible solutions (Q4 FY2014);

• depending on the findings in the previous three bullets and announcing the sampling change in the 

Federal Register, begin collecting samples of beef and pork tissue containing specific lymph nodes 

from establishments where warranted (> 1 year).

9. Pre-harvest Related Activities

Pre-harvest contamination can affect the level of Salmonella on FSIS-regulated products. Synthesizing 

information on pre-harvest interventions from previous and on-going FSIS activities, and other 

information available from industry, could help decrease the prevalence or levels of Salmonella on FSISregulated products. Therefore, FSIS will:

• develop a document summarizing the lessons learned from previous poultry and beef pre-harvest 

meetings4

, and how those lessons were incorporated into or informed FSIS policies. The document 

should include a discussion of how FSIS has worked with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and 

the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to overcome regulatory barriers (Q3 FY2014);

• continue to work with industry members on specific outbreaks to identify best practices they have 

developed for pre-harvest (ongoing); and

• after the above two bullets have been completed, organize and host a pre-harvest poultry meeting to 

focus on those issues. FSIS will then use the information gathered at that meeting to inform future 

policies or best-practice guidelines (> 1 year).

10. Focus the Agency’s Education and Outreach Tools and Resources on Salmonella

New approaches or routes for providing Salmonella-related food safety messages to the public could help 

decrease Salmonella illnesses. Therefore, FSIS will:

 

approach, FSIS would assess the most recent 20 FSIS results for a particular establishment. The “moving window” approach 

would provide FSIS with more flexibility for scheduling sample collection at different establishments. 

4 Previous meetings include the August, 2005 meeting on the pre-harvest reduction of Salmonella in poultry in Athens, GA,

and the November, 2011 meeting on pre-harvest food safety for cattle in Riverdale, MD.
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• provide more detailed messages related to Salmonella, such as explaining why we recommend or 

require certain practices, and will clearly communicate why Salmonella is more challenging than some 

other pathogens (Q4 FY2014);

• provide easy to find information about Salmonella trends in easy to read formats (Q4 FY2014); and

• work with the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to provide audience-appropriate, multilingual, 

Salmonella-specific food safety information to consumers through FNS nutrition programs (Q4 

FY2014).