Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 2/27/17


Chicken processors continue to struggle to control salmonella and campylobacter contamination in chicken parts and not-ready-to-eat comminuted chicken, recent USDA data show.

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service released an update, following a sample collection from Nov. 8, 2015, to Jan. 28, 2017, on how processors are categorized based on how effectively they’re controlling those pathogens against agency limits. The agency categorizes companies as follows:

Category 1: Establishments that have achieved 50 percent or less of the Salmonella or Campylobacter maximum allowable percent positive during all completed 52-week moving windows over the last three months.

Category 2: Establishments that meet the Salmonella or Campylobacter maximum allowable percent positive for all completed 52-week moving windows but have results greater than 50 percent of the maximum allowable percent positive during any completed 52-week moving window over the last three months.

Category 3: Establishments that have exceeded the Salmonella or Campylobacter maximum allowable percent positive during any completed 52-week moving window over the last three months.

While processors are shown to have been doing well in fighting salmonella and campy in chicken and turkey carcasses, with high percentages of them falling into Category 1, they’re having a harder time with chicken parts and comminuted chicken.
For salmonella control in chicken parts, nearly 40 percent of processors were in Category 3, while 38 percent were in Category 1 and about 22 percent were in Category 2. Campylobacter control in chicken parts was better, with 51 percent of processors achieving Category 1, about 19 percent in Category 2 and about 30 percent in Category 3.

Comminuted chicken also has proved to be difficult, with 46 percent of processors falling into Category 3 with regard to salmonella performance. Thirty-eight percent of them made Category 1 and 16 percent Category 2. Meanwhile, all five of establishments sampled for campylobacter in comminuted chicken failed. (In comminuted chicken and turkey products, FSIS gives campy results on a pass or fail basis.)

The numbers largely were similar in the Oct. 4, 2015-Dec. 31, 2016, sample collection, although in the most recent round the percentage of processors in Category 3 for salmonella in comminuted chicken increased 6 percent and the percentage of processors in Category 1 for campy control in chicken parts rose about 5 percent.

FSIS noted that its aggregate data included results from samples collected before the agency’s new performance standards took effect on July 1, 2016. The agency explains its methods and parameters here.

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