National Residue Program: Monitoring Chemical Hazards

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS; also Agency) is clarifying its approach within the National Residue Program's (NRP's) Tier 2 exploratory program when it tests tissue samples collected from livestock and poultry carcasses and detects chemicals that do not have established tolerances or other regulatory levels. This approach applies to potentially hazardous chemicals that are not animal drugs or pesticide chemicals with established tolerances. The Agency also intends to apply this approach to egg products should these products become subject to chemical testing and to products from fish of the order Siluriformes when the final rule to make these species amenable to the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) is fully implemented. FSIS requests comments on the approach discussed in this document, and on how FSIS can further improve its management of environmental contaminants and other chemical hazards in meat and poultry products.