On January 20-22, 1999, the AMSA Board organized a symposium and invited over 35 experts from academia, government and the meat industry to discuss the role of microbiological testing in a beef food safety program from the scientific perspective. The goal of the symposium was to document the science behind the sampling process and to present clear recommendations for the evaluation of sampling programs. Thus, the following objectives were identified:

1) To assess current the concept of microbiological testing in a food safety system.

2) To describe and define the process to make standardized procedures for microbiological sampling.

3) To identify and assess valid statistical approaches to evaluate microbiological sampling plans.

4) To assess or examine strategies for E. coli O157:H7 sampling for industry applications and economic considerations of these strategies.

The consensus report from this symposium is available from AMSA. Members may download the report from this website at no charge.

View the Executive Summary

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Download the full Concensus Report (AMSA Members Only) - Currently available in Adobe Acrobat 4.0 format (PDF File).