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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that the USDA will be issuing new performance standards designed to reduce the prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry.

According to Vilsack, this will be the first time the standards for chicken have been revised since 1996, and the first time the turkey standard have been revised since originally set in 2005.

In particular, the new performance standards will set the maximum positive rate for Salmonella in raw chicken carcasses at 7.5 percent, which represents a significant decrease from the current stanndard of 20 percent . The new performance standard for Campylobacter would allow roughly 46 percent of raw carcasses to test positive.

According to National Chicken Council spokesman Richard Lobb, a USDA baseline study from data collected from July 2007 to June 2008 showed an industry-wide 8.1 percent positive rate for Salmonella and a 40 percent positive rate for Campylobacter. For 2009, he said that the positive rate for Salmonella actually decreased to 7.1 percent. For this reason, Lobb explained that "the new standards are generally consistent with industry performance in recent years." In turn, Vilsack has indicated that the USDA hopes to have the new standards in place between July 1 and August 1, 2010.

In addition to unveiling the new performance standards, the USDA also announced that FSIS has developed the third edition of its compliance guide for poultry slaughter. Click on the following link to view the revised FSIS Compliance Guide.

The new guidance materials include additional and revised pre-harvest recommendations designed to assist processors in their continuing efforts to reduce these pathogens to the greatest extent possible. 

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Scientists from the University of Missouri have developed a new method to detect live E. coli O157:H7 cells in ground beef.

Notably, the two-step method can distinguish between dead and living E. coli cells. The research uses a technique called a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a quick, reliable method for detecting and identifying pathogens in food. However, PCR can't differentiate living from dead microbial cells. Dead cells will not make people ill, and the presence of dead cells often results in false-positive findings, which can result in unnecessary product recalls.

To prevent this, researchers developed a method to stain samples with a dye called ethidium bromide monoazide (EMA). EMA cannot penetrate live cells, but it can enter dead cells. In the dead cells, EMA binds to DNA molecules, making them insoluble and therefore invisible to PCR tests.

The researchers have had success using the new technique on ground beef, chicken and eggs. Testing takes about 12 hours, compared with older methods, which require up to two days to generate results.

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Researchers at the University of Arkansas have discovered some new ways to greatly inhibit the presence of pathogens in food.

According to a recent study, infusing chicken meat with a combination of organic acids (acetic, citric, lactic, malic and tartaric) and select plant extracts (from grape seeds and green tea) can drastically reduce the amounts of E. coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella Typhimurium that may be present.

Not suprisingly, even better results were obtained when the expirimental technique was coupled with small amounts of irradiation.  In this regard, the researchers believe that a combination of organic acids and plant extracts, coupled with very small amounts of irradiation, could ultimately provide the optimal amount of protection against a wide range of food-borne illnesses.

According to Navam Hettiarachchy, a UA food science professor who supervised the project, "we want to determine the least amount of plant extracts that we can use, and the least amount of irradiation dosage, to get the best inhibitory effect."

Although research is continuing, Hettiarachchy has confirmed that at least one poultry company has expressed interest in the project. In turn, to achieve the maximum food safety benefit, Hettiarachchy also remains "hopeful that, with time, the public will become aware of irradiation processing so that they accept [the technology]." 

Although we'll leave it to others to interpret those tea leaves, we will, at the very least, continue to report on new developments. 

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