There are more than 160,000 poultry-related illnesses from Salmonella a year
The U.S.Department of Agriculture has proposed aban on raw poultry with high levels of Salmeonellato curb infections, paving the way for one of the toughest food safety regulations in decades.
The rule would ban the sale of raw poultry with levels higher than 10 colony-forming units per gram of Salmonella that is likely to cause illness, the USDA said Monday. Otherwise, the poultry would need to get cooked before being sold.
The proposal is one of the greatest advances in food safety in a generation,Center for Science in the Public InterestDirector of Regulatory Affairs Sarah Sorscher said in a statement.
USDA and industry have been testing for Salmonella for years, but when a product tests positive, it still gets stamped USDA inspected and shipped out to consumers. Its time for USDA to stop putting its seal of approval on food contaminated with high amounts of disease-causing Salmonella.
Salmonella can cause diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomiting, but some forms of the bacteria can lead to more serious illness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are around 1.35 million Salmonella infections a year, with most coming from food.
TheUSDA estimatesthere are 125,000 chicken-associated and almost 43,000 turkey-associated foodborne Salmonella illnesses per year. USDA testinghas shown Salmonella contamination in poultry has been declining, but there hasn't been any reductions in illnesses.
Far too many consumers become sick from poultry contaminated with Salmonella,"Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.
In 1994, a rule went into effect for beef that banned the most dangerous forms of E. coli. Since the 1994 ban, incidences of foodborne illnesses from E. coli dropped more than 40%, according to CPSI, a nonprofit which petitioned the USDA in 2021 to carry out a similar ban for Salmonella in poultry.
Does the raw poultry ban go far enough?
The proposed rule covers three types of Salmonella in chicken likely to cause illness:Salmonella Enteritidis, Typhimurium and a strain known as 1,4,[5],12:i:." These strains accounted for 68% of outbreak-associated illnesses in the last three years, according to the USDA.
But the strain Salmonella Infantis, which caused a multistate outbreak in 2018,wouldn't be covered by the ban. If Salmonella Infantis was included, 79% of outbreak-associated illnesses would be covered, CPSI said, citing USDA estimates. Salmonella Infantis is also often antibiotic resistant.
Salmonella Infantis is an important emerging threat to human health, and excluding this strain risks having a new standard that is outdated before the ink is even dry, CPSI's Sorscher said.
In addition to including Infantis in its final proposal, USDA should also be sure to fulfill its commitment to revisit the standards regularly, swiftly incorporating new emerging threats in the future, she said.
The USDA is now accepting public comments for 60 days before moving forward, including on when the ban would enter force. Comments can be sent in via the website regulations.gov.
Photo Credit: Consumer Affairs News Department Images
Posted: 2024-07-30 00:12:38
