There were 3,985 samples collected and analysed for the PR/HACCP Verification program, reports the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in its report entitled Quarterly Progress Report on Salmonella and Campylobacter Testing of Selected Raw Meat and Poultry Products: Preliminary Results, July 2014 to September 2014.

A total of 2,968 samples were collected in the raw ground beef sampling program MT43. Of those, 94 (3.2 per cent) were positive for Salmonella.

From the previous quarter, the percentage of plants in Category 3:

• decreased for Young Chicken plants (from 4.5 to 3.5 per cent; from eight out of 178 plants to six out of 171 plants)
• remained at zero for Turkey plants (0 per cent; none out of 35 plants to none out of 29 plants)
• increased for Ground Beef plants (from 1.0 to 1.6 per cent; from three out of 300 plants to three out of 192 plants)
• decreased for Ground Chicken plants (from 25.0 per cent to zero; from two out of eight plants to none out of one plant tested)
• remained at zero for Ground Turkey plants (0 per cent; 0 out of 22 plants to 0 out of five plants).

There were 2,918 samples co-analysed for Campylobacter, with the following percentage positive results:

• Young Chicken – 6.9 per cent (2,396 samples analysed)
• Turkeys – 1.2 per cent (522 samples analysed)

88.2 per cent of all establishments are in Category 1, while 2.3 per cent are in Category 3. The remaining plants are in some version of Category 2.

NRTE Comminuted Poultry Sampling Project Results for all finished products are:

• Salmonella – 46.8 per cent (2,802 out of 5,984 samples)
• Campylobacter – 7.6 per cent (453 out of 5,978 samples)

Out of 1,747 samples analysed for other seven MT projects, 67 samples (3.8 per cent) were found positive, while in imported raw products, only one sample was positive (0.8 per cent).

Notes:

• There were no PR/HACCP samples collected for ground chicken and ground turkey because sampling of ground poultry was suspended at the start of the Not Ready To Eat (NRTE) Comminuted Poultry Sampling Project, except in Category 3 establishments.
• The MT43S sampling programme was discontinued at the end of May 2014. Instead, the MT43 sampling programme is now co-analysing ground beef for both E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella.