The industry program is intended to set pathogen reduction goals
U.S.
Department of Agriculture inspectors should not interfere with poultry industry
efforts to collect chicken samples from processing facilities for a program
intended to set pathogen reduction goals, according to an internal email from
an administrator within the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
The
program, organized by the National Chicken Council, aims to collect samples of
chicken parts from “most all poultry establishments” in order to develop
voluntary pathogen reduction performance goals
There is
the potential that some in-plant inspectors and field supervisors may begin
questioning this effort and take steps to force the establishments to turn over
the results of the sampling. Because inspectors may mistakenly assume that the
sampling could influence decision-making at individual poultry establishments In
fact, any interruption of the industry’s data collection would have a negative
impact on public health.
The poultry
industry has the most responsibility to reduce pathogen loads on chicken parts,
but USDA needs to answer questions about how those pathogen loads might be
enforced. According to a 2012 UDSA report, the estimated national prevalence of
Salmonella on chicken parts was 24 percent, while Campylobacter was 21 percent.
The data
being collected by the poultry industry will be used to take a hard look at the
process of cutting chicken into parts. It’s a way for the industry to prepare
to meet or exceed whatever performance standards FSIS plans to set.
Source: FSIS,
USDA
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