Salmonella Contamination: Consumer Federation Of America Wants Stricter Regulations for Food Companies

Salmonella contamination of food products has been a reoccurring issue in the US food industry. Now, the Consumer Federation of America (CFO) wants to take action by recommending five improvements for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) through a pros and cons list of policy options.

The report looks at the USDA’s evaluation of Salmonella found in raw meats and discusses its dismay that federal agencies have not applied an efficient legal framework to slaughterhouses and manufacturers.

The CFO’s main concern is that the food industry and its regulators do not identify food products that contain Salmonella as an “adulterated” threat, meaning food items that are contaminated with Salmonella are not treated under the same protocol as those contaminated with other foodborne bacterial pathogens such as E. coli.

This issue has been present in the food industry since 1971, leaving the presence of Salmonella to be a minor food contamination and not a category level threat.

The CFA argues that zero percent of food should contain traces of Salmonella, but according to a law that has been implemented since 1996, up to 7.5 percent of raw beef samples sent to the USDA can contain traces of Salmonella and be approved for sale in the country. The report also states that it has been over 10 years since any plan or process to reduce Salmonella has been mandated.

According to the CFA, the absence and inadequacy of administrations to carry out stricter regulation on Salmonella standards are fueling a rising epidemic in the raw meats and poultry industry. The CFA also states that protocols that are used in farming to test for Salmonella are not used for inspection within larger food companies.

Earlier in the year, 147,000 pounds of ground turkey was subject to a Salmonella outbreak. In addition, JBS recently recalled Salmonella-contaminated ground beef, which last week was moved up from five million to twelve million pounds.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1.2 million people are sickened by Salmonella each year, primarily due to exposure through a food source. This leads to 23,000 hospitalizations and 450 fatalities annually in the US.

The director of the Food Policy Institute at CFA and author of the CDA report states, “The standards for controlling Salmonella contamination in ground beef are woefully outdated.”

In the meantime, consumers will have to stand by for any legislation to be passed on a federal scale that mandates a thorough Salmonella inspection of food sites. However, the USDA has made an effort to expose stockyards that fail to comply with present safety regulations.