Standards would aim to cut down on salmonella in poultry

The government is pushing the poultry industry to make its chicken and turkey a little safer with new standards aimed at reducing the number of cases of foodborne illness by 50,000 a year.

The proposed standards announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture apply to the most popular poultry products – chicken breasts, legs and wings, and ground chicken and turkey. They are voluntary but designed to pressure companies to lower rates of salmonella and campylobacter, another pathogen that can cause symptoms similar to salmonella, in their products.

Foster Farms, which dealt with a salmonella outbreak tied to raw chicken from Livingston and Fresno, said Wednesday that it already has gone well beyond the proposed standards. “We support the USDA in taking this critical step to advance food safety across the poultry industry,” said Ron Foster, president and chief executive officer, in a news release. “Foster Farms has made a tremendous investment to ensure that our practices represent the very best in the industry.”

Among the measures companies could take to reduce the rates of those pathogens: better screening of flocks and better sanitation.

The proposal would ask poultry producers to reduce the rates of salmonella in raw chicken parts from about 24 percent now to less than 16 percent, and campylobacter rates in raw chicken parts from 22 percent to 8 percent. Rates also would be reduced in ground chicken and turkey, and sampling would be done over a longer period of time to ensure accuracy.

Foster Farms said it has kept salmonella in raw chicken parts to an average of 2 percent in nine consecutive months, the result of a $75 million investment in food safety. The measures include increased vaccination of breeder chickens, more intensive sanitation at the farms and plants, and educating consumers on safe use of the products. Industry and government officials say the microbe occurs naturally in chicken but can be rendered harmless to people with proper handling and cooking.

The USDA says the standards eventually could reduce salmonella and campylobacter illnesses linked to raw poultry by about a quarter, or 50,000 illnesses a year.

“We are taking specific aim at making the poultry items that Americans most often purchase safer to eat,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Ashley Peterson of the National Chicken Council said the industry already has made improvements. She said poultry companies have been exploring options to reduce contamination, including strengthened sanitation programs, temperature controls and ways of processing. Once the standards are put in place, “we will be meeting or exceeding the standards,” she said.

The standards come after a lengthy outbreak of salmonella illnesses linked to Foster Farms, which sickened more than 600 people from March 2013 to July 2014. In 2013, the USDA said inspectors at Foster Farms facilities had documented “fecal material on carcasses,” along with poor sanitation.

Vilsack said the Foster Farms outbreaks led the department to realize it needed to be more focused on reducing salmonella in chicken parts. The department already had standards in place for whole carcasses, but not individual parts such as breasts and wings. The new proposal would cover the parts, which the USDA says is about 80 percent of chicken available for purchase.

The USDA also would make public which companies are meeting the standards or going beyond them, and which companies have more work to do, giving companies more incentive to comply. The secretary said companies should realize that complying is good business. “It’s in the long-term best interest of the market to have safer food,” Vilsack said.

Consumer advocates have lobbied for more stringent standards, saying the sale of raw poultry contaminated with salmonella should be illegal. Current law allows raw poultry to have a certain amount of salmonella because it is so prevalent and is killed if consumers handle and cook the meat properly.

By comparison, it is illegal to sell meat contaminated with E. coli, which can cause severe illness or death.

Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said the proposed standards would be better if they were enforced. “USDA can’t close a facility that fails to meet these standards,” she said.

About 1 million Americans get sick from salmonella every year, and almost 20 percent of those illnesses are linked to chicken and turkey.

Salmonella causes diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within a few days of eating a contaminated product, and can be life-threatening to those with weakened immune systems. The symptoms for campylobacter infections are similar.

To avoid getting sick, the government advises that consumers wash their hands, utensils, counters and cutting boards before and after they come in contact with poultry. They should separate raw poultry from other foods, cook it to 165 degrees as measured with a food thermometer, and chill it promptly.

“Given the amount of chicken that people consume, it is very important that people handle the product safely,” said Ira Brill, director of communications at Foster Farms.

It employs about 3,600 people at the Livingston headquarters and chicken plant, about 1,300 in the Turlock turkey operations, and about 7,000 at sites elsewhere in California and other Western and Southern states.

Ron Foster, grandson of founders Max and Verda Foster, announced in October that he is stepping down as president and CEO. He will remain in those posts until a successor is named, then will continue to serve on the board.

This story was originally published January 21, 2015 at 3:09 PM with the headline "Standards would aim to cut down on salmonella in poultry."