Statement of Task

An ad hoc committee reviewed whether the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has adequately defined and identified indicators of process control to protect public health that will be used to rank establishments and allocate agency inspection resources. Specifically the committee evaluated how FSIS is proposing to use its available data to develop a relative risk ranking of establishments described in the technical report "Public Health Risk-based Inspection System for Processing and Slaughter." The committee issued a letter report of its findings and recommendations on March 23, 2009.