The Department of Agriculture will not oblige poultry companies to limit the bacteria of Salmonella in their products, which has stopped a Biden administration effort to prevent food intoxication with contaminated meat.
The ministry said Thursday that it was withdrawn a rule proposed in August after three years of development. The managers of the USDA Food and Inspection Service have cited the comments of more than 7,000 public comments and said they “would evaluate if it should update” current Salmonella regulations.
The rule would have forced poultry companies to maintain the levels of Salmonella bacteria under a certain threshold and to test the presence of six strains most associated with the disease, three of which were found in turkey and three in chicken. If the levels exceeded the standard or one of these stumps was found, poultry could not be sold and would be subject to a reminder, the proposal said.
The plan aimed to reduce around 125,000 chicken salmonella infections and 43,000 of the turkey each year, according to the USDA. Overall, Salmonella causes 1.35 million infections per year, most of them through food and around 420 deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The withdrawal praised the National Chicken Council, a commercial group of the industry, which declared that the proposed rule was legally mallyd and misinterpreted, would have increased costs and would create more food waste, all “without significant impact on public health”.
“We remain determined to further reduce Salmonella and fully support food security regulations and security policies,” said Ashley Peterson, main vice-president of group’s science and regulatory affairs.
But this decision aroused rapid criticism from food security defenders, notably Sandra Eskin, a former USDA official who helped write the plan.
The withdrawal “sends the clear message that the Make America Healthy Again initiative does not care about the thousands of people who fall sick with avoidable food salmonella infections linked to poultry,” Eskin said in a statement.
The proposed rule had been considered a victory in food security similar to a 1994 decision to prohibit certain strains of dangerous E. Coli of the chopped beef after deadly epidemics, said Sarah Sorsher, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
“Make no mistake: the expedition of more salmonella in restaurants and grocery stores is certain to make the Americans more sick,” said soar.
Earlier this month, the USDA said it would delay the application of a final rule for six months regulating salmonella levels in certain breaded and stuffed gross chicken products. The application, which was set for May 1, is now starting on November 3.
This covers foods such as the blue frozen chicken cord and the kyiv chicken dishes which seem to be fully cooked but are only treated with heat to adjust the dough or coating. These products have been linked to at least 14 Salmonella epidemics and at least 200 diseases since 1998, according to the CDC.
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