I’ve been around food safety for nearly 50 years in government, academia, and the private sector. I’ve seen a lot of progress to make food safer for consumers, often led by the food industry itself. And I’ve seen examples of resistance.
But I’ve never seen a campaign of resistance on food safety more brazen and seemingly hypocritical than the one the chicken industry is waging today. It’s about Salmonella in chicken. In ground beef, dangerous forms of E.
coli are legally prohibited, but there is no USDA regulatory limit on Salmonella in chicken . Every day, Salmonella-contaminated chicken leaves processing plants with unknown and legally unlimited levels of this dangerous bacteria, all with USDA’s stamp of approval visible on the label. Astounding, but true.
And consequential. Some 125,000 people get sick and too many are hospitalized and die every year from Salmonella in chicken. The stories of their experiences are excruciating.
In January 2021, a coalition of illness victims and consumer advocacy groups petitioned USDA to set enforceable standards for Salmonella in chicken and turkey. Industry appeared to agree. In September 2021, the scientists who lead the food safety programs at Purdue Farms, Tyson Foods, Wayne Farms, and Butterball joined the consumer groups and leading academic experts in a coalition letter to then USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack calling on him to set such standards.
In October 2022, USDA started the rulemaking process. For some two years after.
