New federal standards to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry were released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
The new pathogen reduction performance standards are harder to meet, thus ground poultry products nationwide will have less contamination and cause fewer foodborne illnesses, according to a USDA news release.
Salmonella levels in poultry increase as chicken is further processed into parts. That's why the FSIS believes this new standard for chicken parts, combined with regulatory testing at a point closer to the final product, will greatly reduce consumer exposure to Salmonella and Campylobacter.
Poultry parts - such as breasts, wings and others - represent 80 percent of the chicken available for Americans to purchase, said the release.
"Today [Jan. 21], we are taking specific aim at making the poultry items that Americans most often purchase safer to eat," Agriculture Secretary Vilsack said in the release. "This is a meaningful, targeted step that could prevent tens of thousands of illnesses each year."
Salmonella causes about 1.2 million illnesses in the United States, with 19,000 hospitalizations and 380 deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Another estimated 1.3 million people are sickened by campylobacter each year, though many cases go undiagnosed, said the CDC.
FSIS believes the new standards will reduce salmonella illnesses by at least 30 percent and campylobacter cases by 19 to 37 percent, according to the release.
