Source:Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 10/29/13

A new report indicates that the prevalence of Salmonella on young raw chicken carcasses has fallen 34 percent between the first quarter of 2013 and the second quarter, and is off by more than 120 percent over the last five years.

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) study included testing nearly 3,000 samples from young chicken carcasses between April 1 through June 30. Just 2.6 percent tested positive for Salmonella, a fraction of the government agency’s performance standard of 7.5 percent. The FSIS also reported that the number of chicken establishments qualifying for Category 1 status — those performing better than half of the performance standard for Salmonella — also rose to 70.1 percent in the second quarter of 2013 from 67.6 percent in the first quarter of the year.

The FSIS study also analyzed some samples for Campylobacter and found that positive percentage levels were unchanged from the first quarter of 2013 in the second quarter, but were down nearly 50 percent from levels reported on post-chill young chicken carcasses when FSIS began such testing in 2011.

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