The Trump administration withdraws a proposal from the Biden era which aimed to reduce salmonella in gross poultry products, arguing that the new rule would have imposed “significant financial and operational charges on American companies and consumers,” the Department of Agriculture announced on Thursday.
The proposed rule, which the Biden administration unveiled last year, would have created new safety standards in order to avoid the sale of parts of chicken and raw chicken contaminated by certain levels or types of salmonella. He would also have revised security procedures and test poultry slaughterhouses to prevent contamination by salmonella.
Salmonella bacteria are a main cause of food of food origin and causes approximately 1.35 million infections in the United States each year, most often through contaminated food, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Do you have a news advice that you want to share on food security or epidemics of foods of food origin? You can send a Suzy Khimm message on signal: Suzykhimm.42 or contact NBC News safely here.
The Meat Institute, a commercial group representing meat and poultry transformers, called President Donald Trump to withdraw the proposal and propose another, describing it as among the “expensive and heavy” measures taken by the Biden administration.
The Ministry of Agriculture, which oversees the meat and poultry industry, said the proposed rule was not effectively addressed to the pathogen.
The USDA said that the decision had been made in the light of public comments on the proposed rule, according to which it required more consideration and that the agency would assess if an update of standards was justified. The Food and Food Inspection Service of the USDA (FSIS) listed it Thursday in the federal register.
The USDA declared in a statement that the agency prioritized public health “and has committed to assess its approach more to approach salmonella in poultry products in a way that will give results that protect consumers, and not only to impose regulatory charges on American producers and consumers.”
The National Chicken Council, another group of the industry, congratulated the decision of the Trump administration, affirming in a press release that the proposal of the Biden era would have increased costs for consumers while having “no significant impact on public health”.
“We remain determined to further reduce Salmonella and fully support the regulations and food security policies based on solid science, robust data and it is shown that to have a significant impact on public health,” added the group.
But Sandra Eskin, a former USDA official who helped work on the proposal, said that the withdrawal decision was an error that could considerably delay and have critical food security reforms.
“The main thing is that thousands of people each year get salmonella infections from poultry products, some mortals or worse,” said Eskin, now CEO of Stop Foodborne disease, a plea group. “My concern is that we will not see a reduction in Salmonella diseases early enough.”
