USDA Proposes Policy to Reduce Salmonella

The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today issued a proposed rule and determination to more effectively reduce Salmonella contamination and illnesses associated with raw poultry products.

This is a three-year effort by the FSIS to reevaluate its strategy for controlling Salmonella rates in poultry and protect American consumers from foodborne illness linked to consumption of poultry products.

FSIS estimates that there are 125,000 chicken-associated and almost 43,000 turkey-associated foodborne Salmonella illnesses per year. Despite FSIS data indicating that Salmonella contamination in poultry products has been decreasing, there has not been an observed reduction in Salmonella illnesses.

This year there has been one documented recall for the possibility of Salmonella contamination to date. That recall was for Fratelli Baretta and Busseto brand charcuterie boards in February. There is no word on how many illnesses it caused.

“Far too many consumers become sick from poultry contaminated with Salmonella, and today’s announcement marks a historic step forward to combat this threat,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This proposed framework is a systematic approach to addressing Salmonella contamination at poultry slaughter and processing, which includes enforceable standards that will result in safer food for consumers and fewer illnesses.”

The proposal would establish final product standards to prevent raw chicken carcasses, chicken parts, ground chicken, and ground turkey products that contain any type of Salmonella at or above 10 colony forming units (CFU) per gram/ml and any detectable level of at least one of the Salmonella serotypes of public health significance from entering commerce. The proposed Salmonella serotypes of public health significance identified for raw chicken carcasses, chicken parts, and comminuted chicken are Enteritidis, Typhimurium, and I,4,[5],12:I:- ; and for raw comminuted turkey are Hadar, Typhimurium, and Muenchen. The proposal would also require poultry establishments to develop a microbial monitoring program to prevent pathogen contamination throughout the slaughter system.

Since 2021, FSIS initiated several activities designed to gather data and information to inform the framework proposed rule and determination. These activities included charging the National Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Food to provide guidance on the types of microbiological criteria the agency might use to better prevent Salmonella infections associated with poultry products; conducting a risk profile for pathogenic Salmonella subtypes in poultry and developing two quantitative risk assessments; hosting a public meeting and several roundtables; conducting an exploratory sampling program for young chicken carcasses to generate microbial data and adding quantification to FSIS’ Salmonella testing program.