Statement of Objectives - Request for Information STEC Media

US Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Statement of Objectives

Project Title
Commercial Products used to Grow and Isolate Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) in Food

1.0 Purpose

The purpose of the Statement of Objectives (SOO) is to gather information on commercially available STEC colony isolation procedures that increase the likelihood of identifying and isolating a variety of STEC in raw beef or other food products, regardless of serogroup, from a mixed population. FSIS seeks to understand the level of granularity in STEC confirmation protocols, including selective media that do not rely on STEC serogroup.

2.0 Scope

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Laboratory System continually incorporates new approaches to our laboratory testing and data analytics workflows to increase efficiencies in our food safety system. For example, FSIS laboratories incorporated an additional screening test for the STEC laboratory method which provides high confidence that the stx and eae genes are in the same cell, thereby increasing the likelihood that a screen positive result leads to a confirmed positive. The Agency is data driven and is considering what approaches can move us to better riskbased regulatory controls.

3.0 Background

FSIS is the public health, regulatory agency within the USDA responsible for inspecting establishments producing meat, poultry, and egg products and verifying that these products are safe, wholesome, and properly labeled. FSIS employs approximately 7,500 people, including inspection personnel working in 7,100 federally inspected establishments, scientists and staff in three FSIS laboratories, and investigators nationwide. The high throughput FSIS laboratories operate 365 days a year, analyzing hundreds of product samples each day to identify potential hazards and threats to the food supply. During Fiscal Year 2025, FSIS analyzed more than 109,000 meat, poultry and pasteurized eggs samples submitted by inspectors, which produced more than12,900 bacterial isolates and generated more than 2.2 million individual test results. FSIS annually tests more than 20,000 raw beef samples, including domestic and imported raw ground beef, ground beef components, bench trim, and beef manufacturing trim for the presence of the “top seven” STEC serogroups (O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, O145, O157). The current methodology and isolation procedures can be found online in Microbiology Laboratory Guidebook (MLG) 5C. Media and reagents can be found in MLG 1.