• By way of background, all meat and poultry food products are potentially subject to regulation by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) upon import into the U.S.  Turning to raw beef, in particular, when FSIS has determined that a foreign country is “equivalent” to export raw beef, FSIS may assign an E. coli O157:H7 MT51 Type of Inspection (TOI) at an Increased Level of Reinspection (LOR) that is above the Normal LOR.  This targeted verification testing of shipments of raw beef products aims to verify that the foreign country’s raw beef products inspection system is adequately addressing these pathogens.
  • On March 13, 2017, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection service issued a notice instructing its inspection program personnel (IPP) at official import inspection establishments to subject beef product from the following foreign countries to an “Increased Level of Reinspection” for purposes of an E. coli O157:H7 MT51 type of inspection (TOI): France, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
  • Additional information concerning the targeted, increased inspection of beef imports is available here.