USDA moves to curtail salmonella incidences

Monday 11 January 2010

New pathogen reduction performance standards have been developed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the control of Salmonella and Campylobacter bacteria in chilled carcasses at young chicken and turkey slaughter establishments that are eligible for agency verification sampling.

The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said that these new standards respond to certain key recommendations of the President's Food Safety Working Group to reduce the prevalence of these disease-causing bacteria in poultry.

The agency said its Salmonella verification programme aims to have 90 per cent of poultry establishments meeting the new standards by the end of 2010.

Prior to this, FSIS had standards for Salmonella but not for Campylobacter. The agency claims the new Campylobacter standards will also limit the number of positive samples that are acceptable in a defined set.

FSIS said that the new standards are based on the analysis of data from recent FSIS baseline sample collection programs for young chickens and turkeys. It has yet to publish specific details concerning the new standards.

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