Raw chicken will be rejected as an ingredient in making breaded, stuffed chicken products if there is too much salmonella bacteria in the meat — a step to protect consumers from food-borne illness, said the Agriculture Department. The rule, which would take effect in a year, is the first to name salmonella as an adulterant in a class of raw poultry products.
“This policy change is important because it will allow us to stop the sale of these products when we find levels of salmonella contamination that could make people sick,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
The trigger point would be bacteria that exceeds one colony-forming unit per gram of chicken meat. The USDA food safety agency would test samples of chicken meat for salmonella prior to stuffing and breading, and if salmonella levels are too high, the batch of meat cannot be used.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service said it planned to address salmonella contamination in other raw poultry products later this year. Raw breaded, stuffed chicken products, which typically are cooked at home, accounted for 5 percent of outbreaks of chicken-associated food illnesses from 1998-2020, even thought they made up a sliver of the chicken supply, said the USDA.
A poultry trade group said the new rule amounted to zero tolerance for salmonella. “This abrupt shift in longstanding policy has the potential to shutter processing plants, cost jobs, and take safe food and convenient products off the shelves,” said the National Chicken Council. Raw breaded and stuffed chicken products have not been associated with a food illness outbreak in three years, it said. “What has been shown to be effective is clear and effective labeling, robust process controls, and attention to raw material sourcing.”
“This final determination sets an important precedent,” said the Consumer Federation of America. “The agency has moved toward a more risk-based, enforceable regulatory standard … the agency is certifying the safety of the products that end up on store shelves, which is what matters to consumers.”
To read a prepublication text of the salmonella rule, click here.