USDA established compliance guidelines in 1999 for meeting lethality performance in ready-to-eat meat products. These guidance documents have been revised over the years. FSIS issued revisions of its cooking (lethality) and stabilization (cooling and hot-holding) guidance in 2017, referred to as Appendices A and B. The revisions considered emerging technologies, processes, and science while ensuring that the guidance results in safe food production when applied correctly. In 2021, FSIS revised these guidelines to include recommendations from previous versions and new updates based on up-to-date science. The guidelines were also renamed and had other changes to improve readability. The revised guidelines were announced in the Federal Register 86 FR 71007 and are available online. As a result of these changes, several meat processing companies are revalidating their processing to demonstrate that the processing steps are effective in controlling Salmonella and other pathogens. The target pathogen must be placed on the product, and the product receives the same treatment (temperature, time, humidity, salt %, the water of activity, pressure, etc.) as described in the HACCP plan. This process can often only be replicated at the processing facility utilizing the same equipment. The University of Kentucky Food Systems Innovation Center has performed three validation studies over the last year. The pathogens of interest included Escherichia cols, Salmonella, Enterococci, and Listera. The results of these studies not only served to meet the regulatory requirements of USDA also provides the processing facility with evidence that they are producing a safe product for the consumer.