The federal government announced proposed new regulations Monday that would force food processors to reduce the amount of salmonella bacteria found in some raw chicken products or risk being shut down.
The US Department of Agriculture’s proposed rules would declare salmonella adulterant, a contaminant that can cause foodborne illness, in raw breaded and stuffed chicken products. This includes many frozen foods found in grocery stores, such as chicken cordon bleu and chicken kiev products that look cooked but are only heat treated to set the dough or bread.
The agency notified growers of the proposed changes on Friday. USDA Deputy Assistant Secretary for Food Safety Sandra Eskin said it marks the start of a broader effort by the agency to reduce illnesses caused by the salmonella bacteria, which sickens 1.3 million of Americans each year. It sends more than 26,000 to hospitals and causes 420 deaths, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Food is the source of most of these diseases. The CDC says about one in 25 packages of chicken sold in grocery stores contains salmonella bacteria.
Since 1998, raw breaded and stuffed chicken products have been associated with 14 salmonella outbreaks and approximately 200 illnesses, the USDA said in a statement. An outbreak last year linked to frozen breaded raw chicken products caused 36 illnesses in 11 states and sent 12 people to hospitals.
better test
The USDA has performance standards that poultry processing plants must meet to reduce pollution, but the agency cannot prevent products from being sold. There is also no adequate testing system to determine salmonella levels in meat, Eskin said.
The proposed new rules require routine testing at chicken processing plants. Products would be considered adulterated when they exceed a very low level of salmonella contamination and would be subject to regulatory action, including closing plants that fail to reduce the levels of salmonella bacteria in their products, Eskin said.
“This action and our overall salmonella initiative underscores our view that it is our job to ensure that consumers do not get sick from meat and poultry products,” he said. “They shouldn’t be sold if they’re contaminated to the point where people get sick.”
In 1994, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service took a similar step by declaring some strains of E. coli as contaminants in ground beef and launched a testing program for the pathogen.
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Eskin said the agency met with food safety experts and poultry processors to get ideas on how to reduce contamination in processing.
Representatives of the National Chicken Council, a trade group, and Tyson Foods said they would withhold comment until they receive details of the new USDA rule.
Diana Souder, a spokeswoman for Maryland-based Perdue Farms, also declined to comment, but noted that the company is part of the Coalition for Poultry Safety Reform, a group formed last year to work with USDA and others to reduce foodborne illness from salmonella contamination.
The new rules will be published in the Federal Register this fall, and USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service will seek public comment before finalizing the rules and setting a date for implementation.
- In:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- salmonella
- Iowa
- Agriculture
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