Walmart leads the charge toward improved poultry safety.

The end result, must be a reduction in Salmonella of at least 1­log10 (i.e., a 10­fold reduction) on all chicken parts supplied to Walmart.

Walmart’s existing food safety program already requires poultry suppliers to achieve prevention-based certification against one of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) internationally recognized standards.

Under the new program, US poultry suppliers for Walmart and Sam’s Club will need to implement holistic controls “from farm to fork” to significantly reduce potential Salmonella and other pathogens. All poultry suppliers must comply with by June 30, 2016.

Devil’s in the details: The enhanced poultry measures involve a 4­point prevention and reduction plan along the entire poultry production chain, the four critical control points are: 1) primary breeder stock, 2) Biocontrol measures, 3) whole chicken process control, and 4) chicken parts intervention.

Regarding point 1: Wall Mart want to reduce the vertical transmission of Salmonella to broiler flocks, all poultry suppliers are expected to source from primary breeders who participate in USDA’s National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP) for Breeding Poultry (9 CFR145.83).

Salmonella data, obtained via the current NPIP programs, must be reviewed by suppliers on a regular basis. This will enable them to measure the effectiveness of preventive and corrective actions that occur when Salmonella is detected, and to reduce recurrences.

Presently, primary breeders have done a good job of driving down rates of contamination, this goal and the Company will ask suppliers to report on their progress regularly.

Biocontrol on the farm: As for point 2, when Salmonella serotypes associated with human illness are detected in a poultry housing complex, suppliers must use autogenous (endogenous) or commercial Salmonella bacterins (vaccines derived from killed or attenuated bacteria) to vaccinate broiler­breeder flocks against those serotypes. Moreover, to further control horizontal transmission at broiler farms, we are asking suppliers to re­double their efforts to adhere to disease prevention best practices associated with bio­security and vector control.“

Point 3 focuses on process control measures for whole­bird processors. Poultry suppliers are expected to implement a regulatory approved intervention or combination of two interventions, one between pre­scald and the other post chill.

“Those interventions must consistently produce at least a cumulative 4­log10 (99.99%) reduction of Salmonella. Both intervention(s) and their corresponding reductions must be scientifically validated.

Parts and labor: Point 4 involves interventions to reduce Salmonella rates in chicken parts. In recent years, the industry has done a good job driving down rates of Salmonella on whole birds, but today, Americans are buying more chicken parts, USDA has reported that 24% of all chicken parts produced in the US are contaminated with Salmonella. Source: Food production daily