– OPINION –
Thirty years ago this summer, I went to work as administrator of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) after the historic Jack in the Box outbreak, caused by a hamburger contaminated with a dangerous form of E. coli.. Four young children died and hundreds of people became seriously ill. We acted quickly to make the sale of such E. coli-contaminated ground beef illegal.
It was common sense to do that. And it worked. Many unnecessary deaths and permanent life-changing injuries have been prevented.
Today, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack is taking similar action against dangerous forms of Salmonella in poultry. I am now involved on behalf of STOP foodborne illness, the nonprofit founded by parents whose children were killed or seriously injured in the Jack in the Box outbreak. Inspired by their example, STOP works with disease victims and their families to strengthen food safety policies and practices across government and the food industry.
Disease victims such as Noah are in the foreground. As a two-year-old toddler, Noah was one of the many victims of the 2013 Salmonella outbreak Heidelberg in chicken. This dangerous form of Salmonella caused an infection on Noah’s tiny body, resulting in a brain abscess that required surgery and caused permanent damage that Noah will struggle to overcome for the rest of his life.
It is on Noah’s behalf that we advocate for food safety and will work with anyone who shares our goal: preventing illness from dangerous bacteria in food. And it is on behalf of Noah and thousands of others like him that we applaud Secretary Vilsack for recognizing poultry safety as one of USDA’s top priorities.
Reform of the USDA poultry safety system is desperately needed and long overdue. Salmonella in poultry is one of the most common major contributors to foodborne illness in the United States. Yet current USDA policy leaves companies legally free to ship raw poultry contaminated with dangerous forms of Salmonella known to cause illness. And they do it every day with the safety seal of USDA’s seal of approval. From a consumer perspective, this is unconscionable and impossible to explain to families like Noah’s, who have been devastated by… Salmonella infections.
And that’s why STOP Foodborne Illness joined a coalition with other consumer groups, food safety leaders at major poultry companies and academic experts to find answers. This dialogue between consumers, industry, and academic experts resulted in agreement that USDA’s decades-old and unenforceable “performance standard” approach is “broken.” . . and not delivering the desired public health outcomes.” The coalition agreed in a 2021 letter to Secretary Vilsack that the time had come for the USDA to establish enforceable finished product standards for Salmonella in poultry that would target the forms of Salmonella that make humans sick. Just like what FSIS did thirty years ago with E. coli in ground beef, this is just common sense.
Since then, USDA and the FSIS team have done their homework. They held a public meeting and sought input from the public and industry on a new framework to modernize poultry safety, modeling the changes in ground beef. FSIS also hosted listening sessions, conducted risk assessments and released a report this spring final rule that sets a precedent for reform by declaring it illegal to detect detectable levels of Salmonella in breaded, stuffed chicken products. In November 2023, following this consultation process, USDA finalized a proposed rule to prevent the sale of other raw poultry products that contain unsafe levels of dangerous forms of Salmonella.
Seven months later, the USDA proposal is still under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget. The White House has privately assured consumer groups that the USDA proposal is a priority for publication, albeit one of many priorities. So why is a consumer-oriented food safety proposal that addresses one of the biggest sources of risk in the U.S. food supply seemingly stalled?
A likely cause of the delay is the poultry lobby. This would not be the first time that industry associations have used their considerable weight to delay or block necessary changes to the USDA regulatory system. But what are their real arguments? Comments from the trade association on USDA’s Salmonella framework has made the usual smokescreen claims, ranging from a lack of science to the trope that regulating Salmonella to make poultry safe will jeopardize consumer access to food. Well, USDA has invested in robust science, including multiple risk assessments and consultation with the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods.
And it has never been the case that steps to make food safe have jeopardized consumer access to food. The industry made the same argument to me when I decided to ban the dangerous E.coli in ground beef. Thirty years later, beef is plentiful and safer than ever, thanks to strict legal standards.
Yes, there are many priorities in the White House, and food safety is not a sexy political issue. That shouldn’t be the case. Food safety is rather a human issue. It’s a consumer problem. And consumers know what they want. In a 2021 Survey of Registered Voters Sponsored by STOP, 86 percent supported USDA establishing an enforceable end product standard to protect against dangerous bacteria in poultry.
So for the sake of Noah and many like him, it is time to take action. USDA has done groundbreaking work to bring the reform process to this point. It is time for consumers, industry and independent experts to see and evaluate the USDA proposal and, through open dialogue, shape reforms that fulfill USDA’s responsibility and give consumers the safety and confidence they to deserve.
About the author: Michael Taylor is a board member emeritus of STOP Foodborne Illness and served as FDA Deputy Commissioner for Food and Veterinary Medicine (2010-16) and FSIS Administrator and Acting Assistant Secretary for Food Safety (1994-96).
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