Constituent Update - December 19, 2025

Constituent Update - December 19, 2025

There will be no Constituent Update publications on December 26 or January 2. Regular Friday releases will resume on January 9. Until then, have a wonderful holiday season. We look forward to keeping you informed next year as we continue to bolster food safety.

Stakeholder Engagement

On December 11, FSIS Administrator Dr. Justin Ransom and Deputy Administrator Dr. Denise Eblen hosted consumer and industry stakeholder meetings featuring updates from senior staff across FSIS program areas. Topics included leadership's vision of building a strong workforce and smarter systems to enhance how the agency delivers on its food safety mission, the upcoming January 14 Salmonella public meeting on practical strategies for reducing illnesses attributed to poultry products, updates on changes to laboratory methodologies, the voluntary "Product of USA" labeling claim, and fee reductions for small and very small processors. These meetings provide a forum for stakeholders to hear directly from FSIS leadership and agency experts, ask questions, and receive responses on current initiatives and priorities.

Earlier this week, FSIS hosted two webinars for industry and state government officials to support their implementation of the new "Product of USA" labeling standard effective Jan. 1, 2026. We appreciated the strong participation and thoughtful questions and were pleased to address many labeling scenarios during each session to help clarify how the new requirements apply in practice. Additional questions for FSIS' labeling and program delivery staff may be submitted through askFSIS. As a reminder, a full webinar recording, transcript, presentation materials, and the updated guideline are available on the Voluntary "Product of USA" Labeling Claim Webinars 2025 page of the FSIS website.

Salmonella Public Meeting - Draft Agenda Now Available

Reminder: FSIS hybrid public meeting will take place on Jan. 14, 2026, to gather input on innovative, practical, and science-based strategies to further reduce Salmonella illnesses associated with poultry products. RSVP to attend using the online registration form.

A draft meeting agenda is now available on the event page linked above. The agenda includes the run of show for the meeting and some preliminary questions to consider for the open public comment periods.

There will be four sessions:

• Session 1: Factors that Inform Salmonella Control
• Session 2: FSIS Data Uses and Opportunities
• Session 3: Alternative Parameters for Performance Standards
• Session 4: Policy Options Beyond Current Performance Standards

The final agenda will be updated with times and posted ahead of the public meeting. View the Federal Register notice for more details about the meeting and instructions on how to submit written comments.

FSIS Updated Import Presented Refused and Import Refusal Reason Datasets

Today, FSIS updated the Import Presented Refused and Import Refusal Reason datasets on the Import and Export Data page. The Import Presented Refused dataset includes lot-level information for import volume along with import refusal data at the lot-level. The Import Refusal Reason is provided as a secondary dataset, providing each refusal reason as its own row to facilitate analysis.

The Import Presented Refused and Import Refusal Reason datasets are updated monthly and posted the third Friday of each month, with data broken out by fiscal year (FY), starting with data from FY 2014 (starting on October 1, 2013) through the most recent FY. These datasets are released in an open, non-proprietary comma separated values (csv) format. Instructions on how to open csv files using Excel are available on the FSIS Sampling web page in the Comma Separated Values Guide section.

Upcoming Events

• Jan. 14, 12 p.m.-4:30 p.m. ET: Salmonella Public Meeting

Available for Public Comment

FSIS seeks public comments on proposed rules and notices, which are viewable on the FSIS Federal Register & Rulemaking webpage. FSIS is currently seeking comments on the following:

• Until Jan. 20: Notice of Request To Reinstate a Previously Approved Information Collection: Overtime and Holiday Inspection Fees for Small and Very Small Establishments
• Until Feb. 2: Exploring Practical Strategies to Reduce Salmonella in Poultry Products

Policy Update

FSIS notices and directives on public health and regulatory issues are available on the FSIS Policy webpage. The following policy update was recently issued:

FSIS Notice 41-25 - Federal Government Closure on Wednesday, December 24 and Friday, December 26, 2025

Export Requirements Update

The Library of Export Requirements has been updated for products for the following:

• Canada
• Mexico
• European Union
• China
• Taiwan
• Japan
• South Africa
• Hong Kong
• El Salvador
• Turks & Caicos Islands
• Solomon Islands
• India
• Qatar
• Jordan
• Cuba
• Ecuador
• Curacao
• Peru
• Colombia
• Tunisia

Complete information can be found at the FSIS Import & Export Library.