USDA withdraws a plan to limit salmonella levels in raw poultry
[April 25, 2025]
By JONEL ALECCIA
The Agriculture Department will not require poultry companies to limit
salmonella bacteria in their products, halting a Biden Administration
effort to prevent food poisoning from contaminated meat.
The department on Thursday said it was withdrawing a rule proposed in
August after three years of development. Officials with the USDA’s Food
Safety and Inspection Service cited feedback from more than 7,000 public
comments and said they would “evaluate whether it should update” current
salmonella regulations.
The rule would have required poultry companies to keep levels of
salmonella bacteria under a certain threshold and test for the presence
of six strains most associated with illness, including three found in
turkey and three in chicken. If the levels exceeded the standard or any
of those strains were found, the poultry couldn’t be sold and would be
subject to recall, the proposal had said.
The plan aimed to reduce an estimated 125,000 salmonella infections from
chicken and 43,000 from turkey each year, according to USDA. Overall,
salmonella causes 1.35 million infections a year, most through food, and
about 420 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
The withdrawal drew praise from the National Chicken Council, an
industry trade group, which said the proposed rule was legally unsound,
misinterpreted science, would have increased costs and create more food
waste, all “with no meaningful impact on public health.”
“We remain committed to further reducing salmonella and fully support
food safety regulations and policies that are based on sound science,”
said Ashley Peterson, the group's senior vice president of science and
regulatory affairs.
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Workers process chickens at a poultry plant in Fremont, Neb., on
Dec. 12, 2019. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
But the move drew swift criticism from food safety advocates, including
Sandra Eskin, a former USDA official who helped draft the plan.
The withdrawal "sends the clear message that the Make America Healthy
Again initiative does not care about the thousands of people who get
sick from preventable foodborne salmonella infections linked to
poultry," Eskin said in a statement.
The proposed rule had been regarded as a food safety victory similar to
a 1994 decision to ban certain strains of dangerous E. coli bacteria
from ground beef after deadly outbreaks, said Sarah Sorscher, of the
Center for Science in the Public Interest.
“Make no mistake: Shipping more salmonella to restaurants and grocery
stores is certain to make Americans sicker,” Sorscher said.
Earlier this month, the USDA said it would delay by six months the
enforcement of a final rule regulating salmonella levels in certain
breaded and stuffed raw chicken products. Enforcement, which was set for
May 1, now begins Nov. 3.
That covers foods such as frozen chicken cordon bleu and chicken Kiev
dishes that appear to be fully cooked but are only heat-treated to set
the batter or coating. Such products have been linked to at least 14
salmonella outbreaks and at least 200 illnesses since 1998, according to
the CDC.
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