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October 20, 2014

A new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest and The Pew Charitable Trusts challenges the adequacy of new rules aimed at modernizing poultry inspection that go into effect today. The rules allowing poultry processors to opt in to the new poultry inspection system have been criticized because they were adopted without the benefit of a comprehensive review and assessments of additional or alternative approaches to modernization.

"While CSPI supports modernizing meat and poultry inspection, USDA has adopted an incomplete solution without the scientific backing necessary to assure consumers that poultry will carry fewer hazards, like Salmonella and Campylobacter," said CSPI food safety director Caroline Smith DeWaal. "Several other countries have adopted fundamental reforms, like regular monitoring for Salmonella, better information-sharing from the farm to the factory and processing steps that reduce the spread of hazards between different animals and flocks."

The report, Meat and Poultry Inspection 2.0, provides survey results from five countries with robust food safety systems. CSPI surveyed food safety officials in Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Sweden, and reviewed those countries' inspection practices for cattle, swine, and poultry production. The food safety requirements of the European Union were scrutinized as well. The report recommends that the United States require slaughter facilities to collect better information on the status of animals and flocks and regularly monitor data on plant performance. The report also finds that many countries require slaughter facilities to know whether incoming animals and flocks carry Salmonella and use that information during processing to prevent the spread of Salmonella from dirty to clean flocks and herds.

"One country, Denmark, decreased human illnesses linked to Salmonella in chicken by more than 95 percent," DeWaal said. "The government tested flocks during processing, and poultry farmers and slaughter and processing plants developed better control programs in response."

Earlier this month, CSPI formally petitioned USDA to institute a testing and sampling program for four particularly dangerous antibiotic-resistant strains of Salmonella, and to keep meat and poultry contaminated with those strains out of the food supply.