Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 6/26/14


Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation on Wednesday they said would strengthen USDA’s ability to recall products associated with illness outbreaks even when the product is not considered “adulterated.”

The Pathogens Reduction and Testing Reform Act, backed by Food and Water Watch and Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), is in part a reaction to an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg traced back to chicken produced by Foster Farms that since March 2013 has sickened about 600 people, many of whom were hospitalized.

Despite many food safety interventions and improved industry performance against salmonella, it is always a risk with raw chicken, which is why all chicken products must be thoroughly cooked.

The Centers for Disease Control’s 2013 Food Safety Progress Report showed a 9 percent decrease in salmonella infections in 2013 compared to the previous three years, bringing it to the rate last observed in the 2006-2008 baseline period.

Salmonella is a pathogen that has so far been impossible to completely eradicate from raw chicken. USDA sets performance standards for the industry to minimize its occurrence, but has not declared it an adulterant in raw chicken products.

For this reason, while 23,000 cooked rotisserie chicken products sold at a Costco store in San Francisco were recalled as a result of the Salmonella Heidelburg outbreak, Foster Farms was not asked to recall raw chicken products.

Foster Farms this month reported on the company’s $75 million effort to reduce salmonella. Most recent 10-week data, shared with both USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), indicated a salmonella parts level from Foster Farms’ operations of approximately 2 percent, significantly less than the USDA industry benchmark.  

The new legislation would require USDA to recall any meat, poultry, or egg product contaminated by pathogens associated with serious illness or death or that are resistant to two or more critically important antibiotics for human medicine.

In May, CSPI sued USDA for not acting on a three-year-old petition to declare antibiotic-resistant salmonella as adulterants under federal meat inspection rules.

For more stories, go to www.meatingplace.com.