[Industry news] US regulators plan catfish inspection program scale-back

[Reposted from Undercurrentnews, find the original article here. We are not anyway responsible for the content of this post]

The US federal government is planning to adjust its inspection coverage of catfish at official fish slaughter establishments to once per production shift, from all hours of the day. This decision is based on the inspection experience of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), under the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), according to a notice in the US Federal Register. This is expected to take effect Sept. 1 of this year, but it remains subject to public comments through June 16.

The FSIS has determined that this change “will enable [the FSIS] to provide adequate inspection coverage to fulfill the FMIA [Federal Meat Inspection Act] mandate and allow it to most efficiently equip its workforce with the resources and tools they need to protect public health.”

This comes after the 2008 and 2014 Farm Bills placed the authority of catfish inspection with the USDA’s FSIS, under Section 606 of the FMIA, called “inspecting and labeling of meat food products”.

There are now 16 official fish slaughter establishments receiving inspection during all hours of operation. All of them receive live fish that are subsequently slaughtered and further processed. The FSIS definition of slaughter, with respect to fish, is the “intentional killing under control conditions”.