WASHINGTON – Analyses of dry and semi-dry fermented sausages and fully cooked meat patties forE. coliO157:H7 will be suspended, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. This move is being made because during the nine year duration of this program, more than 10,000 samples of these products have been tested and no positive results have been found.


After reviewing these results, FSIS determined the effectiveness of the testing program forE. coliO157:H7 in dry and semi-dry fermented sausage products for verifying process controls for these products should be reassessed.

Lab resources will be diverted to increase testing forE. coliO157:H7 in raw products that pose a more immediate public health impact.

“We’re suspending the testing in dry and semi-dry sausage while we reassess it,” an FSIS spokesman told MEATPOULTRY.com. “In the meantime, the agency plans to increase testing for the pathogen in raw products that pose a more immediate public health impact.”