Issue View | Council I | 2018 Biennial Meeting
The Issue that you selected is shown below. If you click on "Word Document File with Tracking," you will open a Word document version of the Issue. Because the document you will be opening is in Word format, you will need to use Word functions to save or print the Issue. When you view or use this Word version, the internal html functions will no longer work. Closing the screen will return you to the Start icon.
Issue Number: Council I 011
Issue History
This is a brand new Issue.
Title
Amend Food Code - Whole Muscle Intact Beef Labeling
Issue you would like the Conference to consider
On May 18, 2015, Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) published a final rule to establish labeling requirements for raw or partially cooked mechanically tenderized beef products (Descriptive Designation of Needle- or Blade-Tenderized (Mechanically Tenderized) Beef Product (80 FR 28153)). The rule amends the regulations by adding 9 CFR 317.2(e)(3).
The new labeling requirements provide household consumers, official establishments, restaurants, and retail stores the information they need to distinguish a cut of beef that is an intact, non-tenderized product, from a non-intact, mechanically tenderized product.
With this requirement, those cuts of beef that are not manipulated can be considered as WHOLE MUSCLE, INTACT BEEF if they are not labeled with the requirement as set forth by FSIS.
Public Health Significance
The requirement that steaks, to meet the lower cooking requirements of a surface temperature of 145 F with no consumer advisory, be labeled as WHOLE MUSCLE, INTACT BEEF no longer applies. As long as beef steak packaging does not have the required labeling, they can be considered WHOLE MUSCLE, INTACT BEEF.
Recommended Solution: The Conference recommends...
that a letter be sent to FDA requesting the most current edition of the Food Code be amended to include the following (new language is in underline format and deleted language is in strikethrough format):
Section 3-201.11(E)
(E) WHOLE?MUSCLE, INTACT BEEF steaks that are intended for consumption in an undercooked form without a CONSUMER advisory as specified in ¶ 3-401.11 (C) shall be:
(1) Obtained from a FOOD PROCESSING PLANT that, upon request by the purchaser, PACKAGES the steaks and labels them, to indicate that the steaks meet the definition of WHOLE?MUSCLE, INTACT BEEF, Pf or
(2) Deemed acceptable by the REGULATORY AUTHORITY based on other evidence, such as written buyer specifications or invoices, that indicates that the steaks meet the definition of WHOLE?MUSCLE, INTACT BEEF, Pf and or
(3) Not labeled as mechanically tenderized as required in 9 CFR 317.2(e)(3); Pf and
(3) (4) If individually cut in a FOOD ESTABLISHMENT:
Supporting Attachments
- "FSIS NOTICE 33-17" (1) (2017)
Submitter Information
| Name | Carrie Pohjola |
| Organization | WI DATCP |
| Address |
2811 Agriculture Drive PO Box 8911 Madison, WI 53708-8911 |
| Telephone | 715-579-9487 |
| Carrie.Pohjola@wisconsin.gov |
