Availability of Guidance: Establishments Guidance for the Selection of a Commercial or Private Microbiological Testing Laboratory

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The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing the availability of final guidance for federally inspected establishments in the selection of commercial and private microbiological testing laboratories. FSIS has posted this policy guidance on its Web page http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/ topics/regulatory-compliance/compliance-guides-index. FSIS encourages establishments that prepare meat, poultry, or processed egg products to consider the criteria in the guidance in selecting commercial or private microbiological testing laboratories and in determining the laboratories' capability to produce accurate and reliable results. Regulated establishments are required to introduce into commerce only meat, poultry, or processed egg products that are safe and not adulterated or misbranded. Establishments that select laboratories that do not apply appropriate testing methods or maintain effective Quality Control or Quality Assurance (QC/QA) practices may not receive reliable or useful test results and thus run the risk of not being aware that the food that they have produced is unsafe.