Guidance Document for Veal ­Slaughter Establishments

FSIS releases a guidance document “Sanitary Dressing and Antimicrobial Implementation at Veal Slaughter Establishments: Identified Issues and Best Practices for Veal Slaughter Establishments.” FSIS developed the guidance to help veal slaughter establishments to implement effective sanitary dressing procedures and antimicrobial treatments and to properly assess microbial testing results. Test results show that the percent positive for STEC from trimmings produced from veal appears to be higher than that for trimmings produced from other cattle slaughter classes. FSIS identified common deficiencies: inadequate sanitary dressing, ineffective antimicrobial intervention implementation, and failure to use microbial data in decision making.