USDA Sets New Pathogen Standards For Poultry
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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.
