Why salmonella is a food poisoning killer that won’t go away in the United States | Food safety

IIn my kitchen, I treat raw chicken like it’s teeming with bacteria that could make me and my family sick. I use separate cutting boards for meats and produce; I wash my hands and sanitize anything that comes near the bird, then cook it at 74C (165F). A little paranoid, but with good reason.

Chickens, turkeys and other poultry generally harbor salmonella bacteria which are harmless to birds but not to humans.

The regulations of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) aim to reduce – but not eliminate – bacteria. Under current “performance standards”, for example, up to 15.4% of chicken cuts leaving a processing plant are allowed to test positive for Salmonella. Contamination exceeds these levels in about one in 10 factories, according to a report released in July by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

If restaurants, food processors, and home chefs like me take great care in handling poultry, we can avoid ingesting the bacteria. But it’s easy to slip. Salmonella is the second leading cause of food poisoning in the United States, making an estimated 1.35 million Americans sick each year and resulting in an estimated 26,500 hospitalizations and 420 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), l US public health agency. .

Chicken and turkey are responsible for about a fifth of infections, more than any other food category.

Poultry companies have invested tens of millions of dollars in improving product safety, said Ashley Peterson, senior vice president of regulatory affairs at the National Chicken Council. As a result, she says, the prevalence of salmonella in chicken is at an all-time low.

Despite these efforts, the infection rate remains stubbornly high. A 2020 CDC report said: “The incidence of most infections commonly transmitted through food has not declined for many years.” It found that the incidence of illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths from salmonella increased by 5% in 2019 compared to the previous three years.

Martin Wiedmann, professor of food safety at Cornell University, said: “We are winning a numbers game when it comes to the percentage of salmonella positive chickens, but losing the public health game. “

Tackle Salmonella Earlier

Current regulations on salmonella in poultry are “outdated,” says Brian Ronholm, director of food policy for the U.S. nonprofit Consumer Reports, which called for stricter standards for strains of salmonella that pose the greatest risk to public health.

The current system treats all salmonella equally, although most human illnesses are caused by only a handful of over 2,500 identified strains. The most common strain in poultry, S Kentucky, rarely makes people sick.

In January, Consumer Reports joined with other consumer advocacy organizations and a group of people affected by salmonella infections to call on the USDA to revise food safety standards.

“If we can put in place a system that places a higher value on monitoring and controlling the highest risks, I think this is how you will come to a meaningful path to reduce Salmonella disease,” says Ronholm.

Over the years, advocacy groups have called on the USDA, unsuccessfully, to adopt a zero tolerance policy for certain types of salmonella in poultry. The department’s reluctance likely stems from the loss of a lawsuit against Texas-based meat processing company Supreme Beef in 2001. Federal court ruled USDA could not shut down plant for violating standards. salmonella because bacteria occur naturally in animals and can be destroyed by proper cooking.

The most recent petition focuses on what is perhaps a more realistic goal: not to eliminate virulent strains but at least to set limits on them. Today, a transformer could meet USDA standards by reducing S Kentucky and still not prevent a single case of food poisoning, says Wiedmann.

“The audience will be much better if I keep Kentucky where he is and shoot down [Salmonella] typhimurium, enteritidis, and newportHe says, listing the three strains responsible for about 40% of the disease in humans.

The petitioners’ other big goal is for the USDA to hold chicken processors accountable for their supply chains. “The current system tests the product at the end of the chain, before it’s shipped,” says Sarah Sorscher, deputy director of regulatory affairs at the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest. “This type of testing really encourages chemical washes as the primary means of combating contamination of meat. “

However, chemical washes do not kill all bacteria. “If you want to eliminate the worst types of Salmonella, you really have to start on the farm, because that’s where pathogens spread between animals,” says Sorscher. This could involve vaccinating poultry and regularly testing flocks to control a disturbing strain before it spreads, she adds.

Reducing the most unpleasant strains of Salmonella before the poultry reach the slaughterhouse has been proven to work. After more than 600 people fell ill S Heidelberg linked to chicken Foster Farms in 2013 and 2014, the company spent $ 70million (£ 43million at the time) on programs to control the bacteria. Efforts have been to encourage farmers to increase vaccinations and to require chicks in breeding flocks to be Heidelberg-free.

Heidelberg, once one of the most common causes of salmonella infections, is no longer in the top 20, according to the CDC.

Distrust in the meat industry

In response to the petition, two major trade organizations – the North American Meat Institute and the National Chicken Council – agreed to set limits for the overall amount of Salmonella in a product, but not to target specific strains. The USDA treats all levels of contamination the same, although an undercooked chicken with a lot of salmonella is more likely to make you sick than a piece with just a trace.

In general, the opinion of the industry is that science has not advanced enough to identify which strains to target. Bacteria evolve and genetic information passes between strains, so a harmless variant could become more virulent over time. It may take 10 years for the USDA to approve a new poultry vaccine and at that point another strain may prove to be a greater threat.

In addition, trade organizations say, FSIS has no jurisdiction over farms and cannot legally force processors to take responsibility for how poultry farmers raise their birds.