Salmonella and Chicken and Potential Problems

Morgan Zalkin and Richard Besser have a story for ABC News online about the prevalence of salmonella in the chicken consumers purchase every day.

According to the article, 1.4 million people contract salmonellosis yearly. 15,000 of those are hospitalized, and over 400 die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) “requires salmonella testing at all poultry plants, [] up to 20 percent of the chicken sampled can test positive.” Still, microbiologist and poultry producer adviser Scott Russell says, “We have the safest chicken now that we’ve ever had since the testing began . . . To get it much safer than it is now, we are looking at zero tolerance.”

Russell says that, on average, five percent of chicken test positive for salmonella, and chicken you buy at the grocery store could reflect “the same percentage.” ‘"Good Morning America’ tested 100 packages and found that, for packages of chicken parts, 20 percent tested positive for salmonella. For ground chicken, 54 percent tested positive.” For consumers, these numbers can seem alarmingly high. One of the problems that allows contaminated chicken to get by the inspections is that parts are more likely to become cross-contaminated during processing, which occurs after the USDA has done its testing.

In many ways, increasing testing comes down to what is more important, the health of the industry or the health of the public. Attorney Denis Stearns represents victims of food-borne illnesses believe the government has just settled on what they consider an appropriate risk of illness or death from consuming tainted products.

Clearly the USDA disputes this notion. Dr. Elizabeth Hagen, chief medical officer at the USDA said, “We are 100 percent about protecting public health.” Meanwhile, one step consumers can do to protect themselves is to purchase a meat thermometer and check to see if the chicken is cooked thoroughly before consumption. 165 degrees is considered cooking the chicken thoroughly.

To read the ABC News story click here.

Posted: 11/12/09