Relevance of carcass palpation in lambs to protecting public health.

We recently reviewed the Food Safety and Inspection Service's (FSIS's) inspection procedures for lambs. As a result, FSIS published a Federal Register notice informing the public of its intent to change from an inspection system that requires extensive carcass palpation to an inspection system that requires no carcass palpation for lambs. This decision was based on the following three points. (i) Extensive carcass palpation in lambs does not routinely aid in the detection of food safety hazards that result in meat-borne illnesses. (ii) Hands are capable of spreading or adding contamination to the carcasses. (iii) FSIS inspection systems must reflect science-based decisions as they pertain to meat-borne illnesses consistent with a Pathogen Reduction/Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point environment.