Michele Senne Seaboard Farms

Publish Date: June 3, 2006

The National Pork Board began the Salmonella Assistance Intervention Program (SAIP) in 2000. This program targeted primarily small and very small meat packers who were having difficulty meeting the requirements of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDAFSIS) Salmonella standards. The FSIS set Salmonella performance standards to verify whether SSOP/ HACCP systems are effective in controlling contamination with harmful bacteria. According to USDA, Salmonella was selected because; (1) it is the most common bacterial cause of foodborne illness; (2) FSIS baseline data shows that it colonizes a variety of mammals and birds and occurs at a frequency which permits changes to be detected; (3) current methodologies can recover Salmonella from a variety of meat and poultry products; and (4) intervention strategies aimed at reducing fecal contamination and other sources of Salmonella on raw products should be effective against other pathogens. Detailed guidelines related to the USDA-FSIS response to Salmonella Performance Standards failures by plants may be found at the following web site: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSISNotices/28-02.htm.