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, and 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 pre-defined critical limits (CLs) of 100,000 CFU g