Statement of Sarah Sorscher, Deputy Director of Regulatory Affairs
Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed a new regulatory framework aimed at reducing Salmonella illnesses caused by poultry products. The framework reveals the agency is considering the unprecedented step of banning the highest-risk Salmonella contamination from raw poultry, helping ensure that product likely to make people sick is not sold to consumers.
These standards, modeled on measures the agency took to ban dangerous STEC E coli in ground beef in the 1990s, would replace existing non-specific performance standards that set no limits on the amount or type of Salmonella that can be present in raw poultry. The current standards allow chicken and turkey carrying high levels of the most dangerous serotypes to be stamped “USDA Inspected” and placed on store shelves, putting consumers at risk of illness.