An article in J. Food Protection from 18 February 2025 reported that the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) purchases beef for the National School Lunch Program and other federal nutrition assistance programs. For beef to be delivered to food service facilities raw, each ca. 900-kg lot of boneless beef raw material and each ca. 4,500-kg sub lot of resultant ground beef is tested for standard plate count (SPCs), coliforms, and generic Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and E. coli O157:H7. Additionally, one of every 10 lots of boneless beef, randomly selected, is tested for STEC O157 E. coli O157, O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, and O145. For beef that will be cooked using a validated lethality step at a federally inspected establishment prior to delivery, each lot of boneless beef and each sub lot of ground beef is tested for SPCs, coliforms, and generic E. coli only. Any lot or sub lot exceeding pre-defined critical limits (CLs) of 100,000 CFU g-1 for SPCs, 1,000 CFU g-1 for coliforms, or 500 CFU g-1 for generic E. coli, or containing Salmonella or STEC (O157:H7 or non-O157), is rejected for purchase. For school years 2019 through 2022 (July 2018 through June 2022), 199,955,763 kg of boneless beef and 176,852,781 kg of ground beef were produced for AMS. For boneless beef, 0.09% exceeded the limits for SPC, 0.16% for coliforms, and 0.08% for generic E. coli. Salmonella was found in 1.44% of boneless beef lots and 1.34% of ground beef sub lots. E. coli O157:H7 was found in 0.12% of boneless beef lots and 0.04% of ground beef sub lots. Non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli was found in 0.16% of boneless beef lots. All lots exceeding any of the criteria were rejected for purchase. @ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0362028X25000213
