WASHINGTON — The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a notice asking inspectors of beef operations to fill out a questionnaire on “Raised Without Antibiotics” (RWA) claims. The questionnaire must be completed in the Public Health Information System (PHIS) by Aug. 18.

Currently, FSIS is potentially sampling poultry parts that bear antibiotic claims; no beef is tested. The purpose of the questionnaire is to collect information on establishments that slaughter cattle and are producing products that bear certain RWA claims on the labels.

The issued questionnaire will inform future sampling.

The questionnaire covers the following claims:

• “No antibiotics”
• “No Antibiotics Ever”
• “No antibiotics added”
• “No antibiotics administered”
• “Raised without antibiotics”
• “Antibiotic free”
• “No Added Antibiotic”
• “No Antibiotics in feed, water, or intra-muscular injection”
• “Raised without antibiotics, pesticides, or added growth hormones”
• “No added antibiotics or added hormones”
• “No antibiotics administered, no growth stimulants or added hormones”
• “No Antibiotics – No Added Hormones”
• Other applicable claims indicating no antibiotic use

FSIS instructed inspectors to fill out the questionnaire and submit it during their next PHIS Establishment Profile task.

This notice follows an announcement from FSIS about attempts to strengthen the validation of animal-raising claims.