• Posted April 28, 2025

USDA Drops Plan to Limit Salmonella in Poultry Products

MONDAY, April 28, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has dropped plans to require poultry companies to limit salmonella bacteria in chicken and turkey products, ending a Biden administration effort to reduce foodborne illness.

The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said last week that it was withdrawing the proposed rule, which had been in development for three years, The Associated Press reported.

Officials cited more than 7,000 public comments on the proposed regulation and said they would “evaluate whether it should update” current ones.

The proposed rule would have required poultry companies to keep salmonella levels below a set threshold and to test for six strains of the bacteria most commonly linked to illness. 

Products that exceeded the limit or tested positive for those strains would be barred from sale and subject to recalled, according to AP.

The plan aimed to prevent about 125,000 salmonella infections from chicken and 43,000 from turkey each year. 

Overall, salmonella causes about 1.35 million infections each year in the U.S. and about 420 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The National Chicken Council, an industry group, praised the withdrawal. 

It said the rule was legally unsound, misunderstood science, would have raised costs and led to more food waste "with no meaningful impact" on public health.

“We remain committed to further reducing salmonella and fully support food safety regulations and policies that are based on sound science,” said a senior vice president of the group, Ashley Peterson, told AP.

Food safety advocates, however, strongly criticized the move.

Sandra Eskin, a former USDA official who helped draft the rule, said the decision “sends the clear message that the Make America Healthy Again initiative does not care about the thousands of people who get sick from preventable foodborne salmonella infections linked to poultry."

The Center for Science in the Public Interest's Sarah Sorscher, agreed.

“Make no mistake: Shipping more salmonella to restaurants and grocery stores is certain to make Americans sicker," said Sorscher, the center's director of regulatory affairs.

Earlier this month, the USDA also delayed enforcement of a final rule regulating salmonella levels in certain breaded and stuffed raw chicken products, like frozen chicken cordon bleu. 

Originally set to start May 1, enforcement is now slated to begin Nov. 3, AP said. These products have been linked to at least 14 salmonella outbreaks and 200 illnesses since 1998, according to the CDC.

More information

The Mayo Clinic has more on symptoms and causes of salmonella.

SOURCE: The Associated Press, April 24, 2025