USDA Withdraws Proposed Salmonella Framework for Raw Poultry Products

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, under secretary for food safety in the Office of Food Safety at USDA, told QA last year, discussing the proposed framework. "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. We addressed the specific needs. It’s just using the right tool for the right time. It worked great; now we need to change the tools to get to the next stage."

The proposed framework was targeted at reducing Salmonella illnesses associated with poultry products. 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 proposed to establish final product standards based on these Salmonella levels and serotypes. The agency also proposed revising regulations that require all poultry slaughter establishments to develop, implement and maintain written procedures to prevent contamination by enteric pathogens throughout the slaughter and dressing operation to clarify that these procedures must include a microbial monitoring program that incorporates statistical process control monitoring methods, to require sampling at rehang instead of pre-chill and to require that all establishments conduct paired sampling at rehang and post-chill.

The agency also proposed to amend recordkeeping requirements to require that establishments submit their microbial monitoring sampling results to FSIS electronically.

FSIS had considered proposing to require that incoming flocks meet a predetermined target level for Salmonella at receiving. However, at the time the proposal was published, research did not support the use of a threshold for test results at the receiving step, and many small poultry producers and processors said that such an approach would impose an overwhelming burden on them, said FSIS. Therefore, the proposed framework focused on a non-regulatory approach for reducing the Salmonella load on incoming birds.

FSIS received 7,089 comments on the proposed framework during the comment period that closed in January. Most of the comments were submitted as part of organized letter writing campaigns, while 1,415 were unique comment letters.

FSIS received comments from stakeholders that included poultry and meat industry trade associations, small poultry producer and processor trade associations, large and small poultry processing establishments, consumer advocacy organizations, members of academia, scientific and technical trade associations, diagnostic laboratory companies, foreign entities (government, poultry processors and importers), law students, state departments of agriculture and state representatives, members of Congress and a risk assessment firm.

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.

While the agency said it continues to support the goal of reducing Salmonella illnesses associated with poultry products, FSIS said it believes that the public comments have raised several important issues that warrant further consideration.

INDUSTRY REACTIONS. 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.

When the USDA proposed to ban raw poultry contaminated with Salmonella bacteria from commerce, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) called it the greatest advance for food safety since the agency moved to ban certain E. coli in ground beef in 1994. Sarah Sorscher, director of regulatory affairs at CSPI, said the decision to withdraw the proposal will negatively impact American consumers’ health.

“The decision by the Trump administration to repeal that proposal will let poultry processors continue to ship raw chicken and turkey even after products test positive for high levels of the most dangerous strains of Salmonella,” said Sorscher in a statement. “Make no mistake: Shipping more Salmonella to restaurants and grocery stores is certain to make Americans sicker.”

The National Chicken Council (NCC) released a statement in support of the USDA’s decision to withdraw the proposed framework, alleging that it was “legally unsound; relied on misinterpretations of the science; would have had no meaningful impact on public health; would have led to an extraordinary amount of food waste; and would have increased costs for producers and consumers.”

“We remain committed to further reducing Salmonella and fully support food safety regulations and policies that are based on sound science, robust data and are demonstrated to meaningfully impact public health,” said Ashley Peterson, Ph.D., NCC senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs. “We appreciate today’s announcement by FSIS and share their goal of protecting public health. We look forward to working with the agency on an approach to build on the industry’s tremendous progress in reducing Salmonella on chicken products through policy that is based on sound science, is implementable and will have a meaningful and measured impact on public health.”