The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has advised food inspection program personnel that even though most raw meat and poultry products are subject to Salmonella testing, there is a narrow set of circumstances in which sampling is not warranted. When an establishment processes all its products into ready-to-eat (RTE) product or moves all its raw products for further processing into RTE product at another federally inspected establishment, the raw products at that establishment are excluded from the not-ready-to-eat (NRTE) Salmonella verification testing program schedule.

Here's an example: An establishment slaughters broilers and produces NRTE ground chicken as one of its products. The establishment ships all of its NRTE ground chicken product to another establishment that uses it to make an RTE product. In this example, inspection personnel would not sample the NRTE ground chicken; however, if any raw products are produced from the carcasses, the broiler carcasses would still require Salmonella sampling.