US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced that tougher new standards for preventing Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry processing plants take effect on 1 July, reports CIDRAP. The new standards are the first to address Campylobacter. Though the standards are not requirements, the names of firms that do not meet the Salmonella standard will be published online. The standards apply to plants that process young chickens and turkeys.

The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has estimated that the standards will prevent 5,000 Campylobacter illnesses and 20,000 Salmonella infections each year once they have been in effect for two years.

According to the FSIS Notice, the Service is implementing new performance standards for Salmonella and Campylobacter for young chicken and turkey chilled carcasses at slaughter establishments. The new standards apply to verification sample sets that begin on or after 1 July 2011.

The number of samples collected for young chicken and turkey verification sets will remain the same, but each sample collected in a set will be analysed for both Salmonella and Campylobacter.

Establishments will pass the updated Salmonella standards if FSIS finds no more than five positive samples in a 51-sample set for young chickens and no more than four positive samples in a 56-sample set for turkeys.

Establishments will pass the new Campylobacter standards if FSIS finds no more than eight positive samples in a 51-sample set for young chickens and no more than three positive samples in a 56-sample set for turkeys.

If FSIS finds more than the acceptable number of samples positive for passing either of the standards at an establishment, FSIS will collect a follow-up sample set and will analyse those samples for both organisms. To implement the new standards for Campylobacter, FSIS will move all young chicken and turkey slaughter establishments to the highest priority for scheduling sample sets.

Further Reading

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You can view the FSIS Notice by clicking here.