USDA can do more to safeguard poultry products – GAO
It said the USDA should ensure future guidelines for controlling the pathogens on farms include information on the effectiveness of each practice.
GAO reviewed regulations and documents and interviewed officials from USDA and CDC, and 11 industry, consumer, and government employee stakeholder groups based on knowledge of USDA's poultry slaughter inspections and food safety.
Four actions to improve
The report recommends four actions to ensure FSIS protects health by reducing Salmonella and Campylobacter in products it regulates.
- Once FSIS revises its Salmonella standards for ground chicken and ground turkey, the agency should develop Salmonella performance measures with associated targets to monitor whether activities to bring plants into compliance with the standards are meeting the agency’s goals.
- Once FSIS establishes plant compliance categories for Campylobacter in young chicken and turkey carcasses, the agency should develop Campylobacter performance measures with associated targets to monitor whether work to bring plants into compliance are being met.
- FSIS should develop Salmonella performance measures with associated targets for young turkey carcasses to monitor whether work to bring plants into compliance are meeting the agency’s goals.
- In future revisions of compliance guidelines on controlling Salmonella and Campylobacter, FSIS should include information on the effectiveness of each recommended farm practice to reduce these pathogens in live poultry.
FSIS believes it is not appropriate to establish measures for ground poultry until it has revised Salmonella standards for it; similarly for Campylobacter in young chicken and turkey carcasses.
According to agency officials, revised standards will be proposed and plant compliance categories for Campylobacter established by the end of 2014.
FSIS officials told GAO that a performance measure is not necessary for Salmonellain young turkey carcasses because young turkey plants are meeting the standard.
Senator reaction
Senators Dianne Feinstein, Kirsten Gillibrand and Dick Durbin wrote a letter to USDA to urge them to publish new pathogen standards based on the GAO’s recommendations.
Senators Feinstein and Gillibrand requested the GAO’s report in March to evaluate the effectiveness of pathogen standards from the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS).
Senator Feinstein said the report confirms that USDA’s pathogen standards for poultry products do not adequately protect public health.
“Strong new standards are desperately needed to reduce contamination and safeguard consumers from Salmonella and Campylobacter.”
Senator Gillibrand said: “This GAO report confirms what we suspected, the government isn't doing enough to ensure the safety of our food supply. We have to bring our food production and inspection systems into the 21st century.”
Meat and Poultry Inspection 2.0 report
Meanwhile, a report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and The Pew Charitable Trusts challenges the adequacy of rules to modernizing poultry inspection that went into effect yesterday.
The report provides survey results from food safety officials in Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Sweden, and reviewed inspection practices for cattle, swine, and poultry production.
It recommends that the US require slaughter facilities to collect better information on the status of animals and flocks and regularly monitor data on plant performance.
“While CSPI supports modernizing meat and poultry inspection, USDA has adopted an incomplete solution without the scientific backing necessary to assure consumers that poultry will carry fewer hazards, like Salmonella and Campylobacter,” said Caroline Smith DeWaal, CSPI food safety director.
“Several other countries have adopted fundamental reforms, like regular monitoring for Salmonella, better information-sharing from the farm to the factory and processing steps that reduce the spread of hazards between different animals and flocks."
