Salmonella Contamination Outbreaks in Poultry Plants across the U.S.

Extract of Report By Joanne C. Twaddell of Food & Water Watch -USA 

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'The Food and Water Watch States Startling Statistics, but USDA Insists Contamination is on the Decline '

Each package of raw poultry sold in the USA has this stamp on the label: “Inspected for wholesomeness by U.S. Department of Agriculture.” It also displays the establishment number of where the poultry was processed.

According to the recently released report from the Food and Water Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to stopping corporate control of food and water), 106 broiler chicken plants in 27 states and Puerto Rico failed to meet the performance standard in at least one Salmonella testing period. Their analysis claims that Salmonella contamination rates have risen in the past two years.

“Salmonella is one of the pathogens of concern,” according to Steven Cohen, senior press officer for the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). “It was a new initiative to test for Salmonella in broiler chickens. While other categories were decreasing, there were a series of increases in poultry contamination collectively since 2002. Since the last quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006, the numbers have improved.”

Varying Acceptable Percentages
The bacteria Salmonella is the leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States, with nearly a million cases of salmonellosis attributed annually to meat and poultry consumption, according to the Food and Water Watch report. Of these, over 9,000 of the victims are hospitalized and over 250 die. The annual cost of illnesses and premature death from Salmonella is estimated to be around $1.5 billion. Food and Water Watch is increasingly concerned about the potential for pathogens, including Salmonella, to become resistant to antibiotics. Infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria are more frequently associated with illness and death than those caused by bacteria that are not antibiotic-resistant.

FSIS began enforcing a new Salmonella standard in 1998 by testing raw and ground products for the presence of the pathogen, according to the Food and Water Watch report. The purpose of the new program was to use microbial sampling to determine when plants were not controlling food safety hazards in their production processes. Testing was also supposed to serve as an objective indicator of when industry and/or government were not fulfilling their food safety responsibilities.......................  "

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