Microbiological Testing Results of Boneless and Ground Beef Purchased for the National School Lunch Program, School Years 2019–2022

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 foodservice facilities raw, each ca. 900 kg lot of boneless beef raw material and each ca. 4,500 kg sublot of resultant ground beef is tested for standard plate count organisms (SPCs), coliforms, generic Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and E. coli O157:H7. Additionally, one of every 10 lots of boneless beef, randomly selected, is tested for Shiga toxin-producing non-O157 E. coli (STEC) 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 sublot of ground beef is tested for SPCs, coliforms, and generic E. coli only. Any lot or sublot exceeding predefined 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, 198 (0.09%), 344 (0.16%), and 169 (0.08%) of 218,349 lots exceeded CLs for SPCs, coliforms, and generic E. coli, respectively; 1,678 (1.44%) and 144 (0.12%) of 116,873 lots tested for pathogens were positive for Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7, respectively; and 20 (0.16%) of 12,133 lots tested were positive for non-O157 STEC. For ground beef, 46 (0.11%), 40 (0.09%), and 15 (0.03%) of 43,346 sublots exceeded CLs for SPCs, coliforms, and generic E. coli, respectively; and 260 (1.34%) and 8 (0.04%) of 19,444 sublots were positive for Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7, respectively. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done on 1,770 Salmonella isolates, 112 E. coli O157:H7 isolates, and 14 non-O157 STEC isolates. Resistance to ≥1 antimicrobial was observed for 726 (41.02%) Salmonella isolates, 27 (24.11%) E. coli O157:H7 isolates, and 1 (7.14%) non-O157 isolates. All lots and sublots found to exceed indicator organism CLs or to contain pathogens were rejected for purchase and diverted from federal nutrition assistance programs.