You may not be aware of it, but when you purchase raw or processed chicken at the grocery store there’s a chance it’s brimming with salmonella.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 1.35 million people in the U.S. get sick from salmonella annually, with more than 26,000 hospitalized and 420 deaths.
Of that number, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service estimates there are 125,000 chicken and 42,000 turkey associated salmonella food-borne illnesses each year.
In May of 2024, a major salmonella outbreak linked to backyard poultry resulted in 470 illnesses, 125 hospitalizations and one death across 48 states.
Unfortunately for the feds, while Big Poultry has worked to lower poultry contamination rates in recent years, those efforts haven’t reduced salmonella illnesses to meet U.S.national goals.
So it would seem prudent to enact regulations that might decrease the amount of salmonella-laced poultry reaching the meat counter.
Last August, USDA did just that, publishing a rule in the Federal Register that would classify raw poultry as adulterated (unsafe for consumption) if it contains 10 or more colony-forming units per gram of any salmonella strain. For raw breaded stuffed chicken the standard is just 1 CFU per gram.
Such poultry would be declared unfit for consumption. Full stop.
The rule also mandates stricter contamination procedures at poultry slaughterhouses and a new USDA testing regime.
Needless to say, Big Poultry isn’t thrilled with the proposed rule.
Even before the rule was announced last August, Big Poultry was taking potshots. National Chicken Council President Mike Brown wrote in a release that:
“NCC is gravely concerned that the precedent set by this abrupt shift in longstanding policy has the potential to shutter processing plants, cost jobs, and take safe food and convenient products off shelves…NCC strongly supports effective public health measures and science-driven policy. USDA’s determination is neither.”
Standard boilerplate. Brown probably was just as concerned if not more so about financial losses to Big Poultry’s bottom line. FSIS put the cost of complying with verification sampling at $14.47 million a year. And that doesn’t include the losses incurred by poultry that fail inspection.
Here’s where the story gets goofy. Two Republican U.S. House representatives – Steven Womack from Arkansas and Tracey Mann from Kansas – have introduced a bill that would prevent USDA from using taxpayer dollars to implement the rule that hasn’t even yet been finalized. Is that the proverbial running around like a chicken with its head cut off?
Mann turned the proposed rule into a them vs. us political debate issue suggesting:
“Rather than coming up with real solutions to drive down costs and make life easier for Americans, President Biden dug his heels deeper in his war on rural America with costly, burdensome regulations.”
Womack and Mann leading the charge for Big Poultry isn’t surprising. Womack is co-chair of the Congressional Chicken Caucus. Mann is chairman of the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry. Both took contributions from Big Poultry in the last election cycle – Wormak received $30,850 from Tyson Foods and another $10,000 from individuals or PACs associated with the National Chicken Council, while Mann accepted $10,000 from the National Turkey Federation.
It would have been better for Womack and Mann to keep their powder dry. I doubt the rule will survive White House scrutiny. Perhaps Mann and Womack had the NCC breathing down their neck?
Whether an adulterated standard for poultry is a good idea is debatable. No one probably knows with clarity if it will reduce poultry salmonella infections. On the other hand, a thought out effort to lower poultry salmonella infections is a worthwhile pursuit. Mann suggests looking for “real solutions.” I think Mann and Womack should do so forthwith.
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