USA – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced a sweeping proposed rule aimed at reducing Salmonella contamination in raw poultry products.

This move comes after a three-year re-evaluation of FSIS’s strategy for controlling Salmonella, a pathogen responsible for over one million human infections annually in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The proposal seeks to address the persistent public health challenge posed by Salmonella in poultry, a leading source of foodborne illness.

A persistent threat

Despite a decline in contamination levels in poultry products, FSIS data indicates that the rate of Salmonella-related illnesses has not decreased correspondingly.

FSIS estimates that approximately 125,000 chicken-associated and nearly 43,000 turkey-associated Salmonella infections occur each year. These figures emphasize the urgent need for more stringent measures to protect consumers from this foodborne pathogen.

“Far too many consumers become sick from poultry contaminated with Salmonella, and [this] announcement marks a historic step forward to combat this threat,” stated Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

He emphasized that the proposed rule represents a systematic approach to controlling Salmonella contamination at the poultry slaughter and processing stages, incorporating enforceable standards to enhance food safety.

New standards for safer poultry

The proposed rule would establish stringent standards for raw chicken carcasses, chicken parts, ground chicken, and ground turkey products.

Specifically, it would prevent these products from entering commerce if they contain any type of Salmonella at or above 10 colony-forming units (CFU) per gram or milliliter.

 Additionally, the presence of any detectable level of certain Salmonella serotypes, deemed of public health significance, would also disqualify the products from being sold.

The serotypes identified in the proposal for raw chicken include Enteritidis, Typhimurium, and I,4,[5],12:i:-, while those for raw turkey are Hadar, Typhimurium, and Muenchen. The rule would also require poultry establishments to develop a microbial monitoring program aimed at preventing pathogen contamination throughout the slaughter process.

Science-driven and data-informed

USDA’s Under Secretary for Food Safety, Dr. Emilio Esteban, highlighted that the proposed framework is grounded in data and rigorous scientific evaluation.

“We encourage all interested stakeholders to submit comments and relevant data on the proposal as we work to finalize data-driven, science-based regulatory policies to address Salmonella in poultry,” he said.

The proposed rule is the result of extensive data gathering and stakeholder engagement initiated by FSIS since 2021.

These efforts included consultations with the National Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Food, conducting risk assessments for pathogenic Salmonella subtypes in poultry, hosting public meetings and roundtables, and implementing an exploratory sampling program for young chicken carcasses to generate microbial data.

Building on past efforts

The new framework is part of FSIS’s ongoing efforts under the Biden-Harris Administration to strengthen food safety regulations.

Earlier in 2024, FSIS made a final determination to classify Salmonella as an adulterant in raw breaded stuffed chicken products when contamination exceeds the threshold of 1 CFU per gram.

Additionally, FSIS introduced a final rule permitting the voluntary “Product of USA” label only on products derived from animals that were born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the United States.

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