The Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced a stronger and more comprehensive effort to reduce Salmonella illnesses associated with poultry products. The agency is initiating a few different activities to gather data and information vital to reach the goal of moving closer to the national target of a 25% reduction in Salmonella sickness. Despite consistent reductions in the occurrence of Salmonella in poultry products, more than one million Salmonella cases happen every year, and 23% of those cases are due to consuming turkey or chicken.
USSDA wants to find stakeholder feedback on specific Salmonella control and measurement strategies, including pilot projects, in poultry slaughter and processing facilities. One important component of the approach is encouraging preharvest controls to cut down contamination coming into the slaughterhouse. The data from the pilot programs will be collected and used to figure out if a different approach could reduce Salmonella illness in consumers.
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