USDA Withdraws Proposed Salmonella Framework for Raw Poultry

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is withdrawing its proposed rule and determination for Salmonella in raw poultry products, published last August.

In an April 24 statement, the agency said it determined that additional consideration is needed in light of feedback received during the public comment period, which closed Jan. 17. Based on input received from stakeholders, FSIS said it will evaluate whether it should update current poultry Salmonella performance standards.

Salmonella bacteria cause over 1 million human infections in the U.S. each year, according to the CDC. FSIS estimates that there are 125,000 chicken-associated and almost 43,000 turkey-associated foodborne Salmonella illnesses per year. Despite FSIS data indicating that Salmonella contamination in poultry products has been decreasing, the agency said in 2024 that it has not seen a reduction in Salmonella illnesses.

“Salmonella is causing about 1.2 million illnesses a year, and about 20-27% is related to poultry,” José Emilio Esteban, former under secretary for food safety in the Office of Food Safety at USDA, told QA last year. “The poultry industry has done a lot to minimize contamination of the carcasses. Now, we need to be more refined. We need to figure out which serotypes at what amounts are the ones that are causing illness. And that’s what this framework that we’re proposing is going to address. In other words, we had a sledgehammer to get to this point, and now we have a finer hammer.”

FSIS’ proposed determination declared raw chicken carcasses, chicken parts, comminuted chicken and comminuted turkey products contaminated with certain Salmonella levels and serotypes are adulterated as defined in the Poultry Products Inspection Act.

FSIS received 7,089 comments on the proposed framework during the comment period. The issues that generated the most comments, both positive and negative, included those associated with FSIS’ legal authority to propose the final product standards, the proposed Salmonella levels and serotypes for the final product standards, the proposed use of SPC monitoring, the scientific and technical information used to support the proposed framework, the potential economic impacts of the proposed framework and the potential impact of the proposed framework on small poultry growers and processors, according to FSIS. Several comments suggested alternative approaches other than the proposed framework for addressing Salmonella illnesses associated with poultry products, FSIS said.

Sandra Eskin, Stop Foodborne Illness (STOP) CEO and former USDA deputy under secretary for food safety, said the decision to withdraw the poultry framework “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. The proposal was developed with robust stakeholder input, and the decision to withdraw it was made before FSIS even had an opportunity to review the extensive docket.”

Prior to joining STOP in February, Eskin spent years working on the proposed poultry framework with USDA.