USDA withdraws plan to limit salmonella in raw poultry

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Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture is withdrawing a Biden-era rule aimed at reducing salmonella contamination in raw chicken and turkey products.
• The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service scrapped the proposal, introduced last summer, in response to concerns from chicken and turkey producers that it would be too costly to implement, the agency said in a Federal Register notice.
• The rule would have required poultry producers to develop monitoring systems and keep salmonella levels below certain thresholds. The chicken and turkey industries have argued that poultry is safe to eat when cooked properly.

Dive Insight:

The FSIS estimates there are 125,000 chicken-associated and almost 43,000 turkey-associated foodborne illnesses per year due to salmonella contamination, and the withdrawal of the rule overturns a more than three-year effort to improve food safety.

In addition to scrapping the raw poultry proposal, the USDA is delaying the start of inspections under an associated rule that declared salmonella a contaminant in raw, breaded stuffed chicken products.

For years, salmonella in raw poultry was not considered to be a threat to human health under the reasoning that the bacteria is typically neutralized in the cooking process. However, poultry still remains a leading source of foodborne illness — and while data suggests that salmonella contamination in chicken and poultry products has been on the decline, there hasn't been an observed reduction in the number of illnesses.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest had called the USDA's move to limit salmonella “the greatest advance for food safety” since the agency took steps on E. Coli in ground beef in the 1990s.

“The decision by the Trump administration to repeal that proposal will let poultry processors continue to ship raw chicken and turkey even after products test positive for high levels of the most dangerous strains of Salmonella,” Sarah Sorscher, CSPI director of regulatory affairs, said in a statement. “Make no mistake: Shipping more Salmonella to restaurants and grocery stores is certain to make Americans sicker.”

The National Chicken Council applauded the repeal of the rule, saying it would have had “no meaningful impact on public health” and raise costs for both consumers and producers.

“We remain committed to further reducing Salmonella and fully support food safety regulations and policies that are based on sound science, robust data, and are demonstrated to meaningfully impact public health,” Ashley Peterson, NCC senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs, said in a statement.

The repeal of the rule also comes after the USDA faced criticism for being slow to finalize or update many safety standards to protect against the risk of foodborne illness. A report from the Government Accountability Office found that the USDA has largely paused work on standards for illness-causing pathogens since 2018, with the exception of salmonella in raw poultry.

Food recalls reached a five-year high in 2024, impacting big-name brands including Boar's Head. Listeria contamination at chicken supplier BrucePac led to the recall of more than 12 million pounds of chicken in foodservice and grocery store items.