Gillibrand, Slaughter Write to USDA About Poultry Salmonella Testing Problems

From Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's office:

U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California and Reps. Rosa Luisa DeLauro of Connecticut and Louise Slaughter of New York on June 27 wrote to the U.S. Department of Agriculture urging them to revise current pathogen testing protocols to improve test accuracy and protect the public health. 

The members wrote to Agriculture Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack in response an article published this month by the Agricultural Research Service which suggested the USDA's use of three antimicrobial sanitizers commonly used to reduce pathogens on poultry carcasses may cause false-negative results for Salmonella.

Testing for Salmonella plays a critical role in the department’s inspection program to protect the safety of the food supply and the public’s health. Given the diversity of processing plants in the country and recent results of the Broiler Carcass Rinsates study, the members are calling on the department to ensure that the use of chemical sprays and dips do not create false negative test results.

“We have to be vigilant when it comes to monitoring the safety of our food. This report is a reminder of the importance of good and efficient oversight when it comes to maintaining a safe food supply,” said Gillibrand, the first New York senator to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee in about 40 years.

“We should never be placed in the position to question testing results in our poultry," she said. "The USDA should provide a thorough risk assessment and respond to the recent scientific findings of false-negative results to ensure we can remain confident in the safety of the food we buy for our families.”

“Recent studies calling into question the safety of the nation’s poultry processing are deeply troubling and highlight a major deficiency in our food safety system. The USDA must take these studies seriously and take immediate action to ensure that we are not masking the threat of Salmonella,” said DeLauro. 

“Ensuring the health and well-being of American people is of the utmost importance and the USDA must do more to keep food-borne illnesses out of the nation’s food supply. American lives depend on it,” she said.

“This study is extremely troubling. We should never have to worry that the food we put on our plates could expose our families to dangerous Salmonella infection because of possibly faulty testing methods by the USDA," said Slaughter, of the Rochester area. 

"I look forward to hearing more from Secretary Vilsack so we can be sure that the USDA is doing everything it can to eliminate false-negative results and protect public health,” she said.

New Federal Standards Finalized to Reduce Poultry Foodborne Illnesses

From the office of U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service finalized new federal standards that will reduce the risk of foodborne illnesses from poultry. 

The new standards are targetd at Salmonella and Campylobacter in chicken parts and ground chicken and turkey products. The Food Safety and Inspection Service will use these new pathogen standards to assess the food safety performance of establishments that process these types of poultry products. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that Salmonella and Campylobacter cause nearly two million foodbome illnesses, 27,500 hospitalizations, and over 450 deaths each year. Further, the CDC reports current food safety regulations have not reduced the number of illnesses caused by Salmonella since 2000.

U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Dianne Feinstein and Dick Durbin, in announcing the new standards, said they have pushed for updated and improved pathogen standards to better match the variety of poultry products consumers purchase today. 

The new pathogen standards, sampling methods, and public notification regarding food company performance will provide a more thorough assessment of a company’s food safety system and whether additional measures to ensure food safety are needed.

The new standards will require Salmonella contamination rates of no more than 25 percent for ground chicken and no more than 13.5 percent for ground turkey. In contrast, the old standards allow 44.6 percent contamination for ground chicken and 49.9 percent for ground turkey.

For chicken parts, the standards will require Salmonella contamination rates of no more than 15.4 percent and Campylobacter contamination rates of no more than 7.7 percent. The standards also will require Campylobacter contamination rates of no more than 1.9 percent for ground chicken and no more than 1.9 percent for ground turkey. Previously, there were no federal standards for pathogens in chicken parts or for Campylobacter in ground chicken and turkey.

As part of their ongoing efforts to improve food safety, the senators have also asked the USDA to update pathogen standards for beef and pork products.

New USDA Testing Improves Safeguards Against Salmonella in Beef

From the USDA:

As grilling season heats up, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is enhancing our food safety testing program for ground beef. 

While FSIS has a range of safeguards to reduce E. coli in ground beef, this summer we will begin new testing to improve the safeguards against Salmonella as well. Salmonella is commonly found in ground beef and, in fact, caused an illness outbreak in January 2013 in six states.

Salmonella is an especially difficult bacteria for food safety experts to address because it is so prevalent in almost all food sources.
Recognizing that we need more information about the prevalence of Salmonella in ground beef to better prevent food-borne illness, FSIS is “super-sizing” our pathogen testing program to include Salmonella every time our laboratories test for E. coli in samples of ground beef and ground beef sources. Because the samples taken for E. coli testing are much larger than those we have taken in the past for Salmonella, there is higher likelihood that we will be able to detect the bacteria if it is present.

Once FSIS has collected enough data about the prevalence of Salmonella in ground beef, we will create a new standard to encourage ground beef processors to strengthen their Salmonella controls, resulting in safer products and fewer foodborne illnesses. The data collection process will take some time, but it is critical that the new standard is supported by meaningful data. 

Of course, we will continue to analyze any positive samples for multi-drug resistance and specific serotypes to determine whether they are contributing to human illnesses.

Salmonella is the most urgent issue facing FSIS when it comes to protecting consumers and it is why we developed our Salmonella Action Plan. This plan details our strategy for reducing the number of Salmonella-related illnesses, and this enhancement to our sampling and testing programs is part of that comprehensive effort. 

Another part of our war on Salmonella is encouraging consumers to take steps to protect themselves from illnesses, including cooking all ground beef to 160 °F (poultry should be cooked to 165 °F). For more information on ways to keep your family Salmonella-free this summer, we invite you to check out FoodSafety.gov or AskKaren.gov before your next cook out.

USDA May Close 3 California Poultry Plants

Find out why http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-foster-farms-salmonella-20131010,0,215096.story by checking out this Los Angeles Times story.