Poultry Update: USDA Finalizes One Salmonella Policy
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has announced its final determination to declare Salmonella an adulterant in raw breaded chicken products when they exceed a specific contamination threshold. The final determination is part of the FSIS’ broader efforts to reduce Salmonella illnesses associated with America’s raw poultry. FSIS will set requirements for other poultry products later in 2024.
“The policy will allow us to stop the sale of these products when we find levels of Salmonella contamination that could make people sick,” says Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack.
However, the National Chicken Council says the policy will likely cost jobs.
“This abrupt shift in longstanding policy has the potential to shutter plants, cost jobs, and take safe food and products off the shelves,” says NCC President Mike Brown. “These changes are designed to reduce outbreaks in a product that’s only been associated with one outbreak in the last nine years.”
