Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 1/28/11

Two years ago at the International Poultry Expo, Dan Engeljohn, chief policy writer for USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, gave makers of frozen not-ready-to-eat (NRTE) stuffed poultry products a stern warning: solve the problem of salmonella-related illnesses or USDA would come down hard with new regulations.

Engeljohn recalled telling the group that the industry must solve the problem of salmonella surviving microwave cooking or the agency would need to step in and pursue regulations that would mandate that those raw products be free of salmonella -- a nearly impossible task.

In a brief interview with Meatingplace at this year’s show, Engeljohn also recalled, “There was a lot of pushback. This for them would have been a devastating regulation because they would have had to substantially change their production practices.”

About 40 U.S. companies make frozen NRTE stuffed poultry products (like Chicken Kiev). Most of these products are made by Barber Foods, Tyson Foods, Koch Foods and Maple Leaf Foods. Because the products are often breaded and browned, they can appear cooked, but inside they are still raw.
At this year’s show, representatives of all four of these companies spoke at the Salmonella and Campylobacter Reduction Conference about various aspects of controlling salmonella in their NRTE products.

Over the past two years these four companies joined forces to research, test and implement a series of label changes that have dramatically increased consumer recognition that these products are raw. Words like “uncooked” were replaced with “raw” and label warnings were added, including one against microwave cooking the products.

Barber Foods Vice President for Brand Marketing Mark Dvorozniak quipped the process had turned his hair grey.

The payoff for this joint industry effort came on the same stage on which the warning had been served. Addressing poultry processors at this year’s IPE, Engeljohn said the agency was not at this time moving forward on proposals it made in January 2009 to impose stricter rules on these NRTE stuffed poultry products.

“We prefer to get the industry to come forward with solutions as opposed to putting in place a minimum requirement that might be more draconian than was necessary,” Engeljohn told Meatingplace. “(FSIS) always has the option of moving forward if we saw slippage, but we have a number of significant public health actions that I’m working on that are higher priority now because the industry stepped forward with a voluntarily solution. I believe they have demonstrated that they have collectively gotten together to find solutions. As a consequence, we are not prioritizing that regulatory action.”

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