US policy change for raw breaded stuffed poultry products

Despite improvements in food safety and labelling, raw breaded stuffed chicken products continue to be associated with salmonella illness outbreaks. While this type of product accounts for less than 0.15% of the total domestic chicken supply in the US, outbreaks linked to these products represented approximately 5% of all chicken-associated outbreaks in the US during 1998–2020. The most recent outbreak in 2021 resulted in illnesses across 11 US states.

As part of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service’s (FSIS) broader efforts to reduce salmonella illnesses associated with the raw poultry supply in the US, FSIS has announced its final determination to declare salmonella an adulterant in raw breaded stuffed chicken products when they exceed a specific threshold (1 colony forming unit (CFU) per gram or higher) for salmonella contamination.

“This final determination marks the first time that salmonella is being declared an adulterant in a class of raw poultry products,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

“This policy change is important because it will allow us to stop the sale of these products when we find levels of salmonella contamination that could make people sick.”

Any raw breaded stuffed chicken products that include a chicken component that tested positive for salmonella at 1 CFU per gram or higher will now be considered to be adulterated by FSIS under this determination.

Verification procedures carried out by FSIS will include sampling and testing of the raw incoming chicken component of these products prior to stuffing and breading to ensure producing establishments control salmonella in these products. If the chicken component in these products does not meet this standard, the product lot represented by the sampled component won’t be permitted to be used to produce the final raw breaded stuffed chicken products. The determination, including FSIS’s sampling and verification testing, will be effective 12 months after its publication in the Federal Register.

The determination method of salmonella in poultry as an adulterant uses a similar criteria to the method that is now used in FSIS’s E. coli policymaking for beef. When FSIS declared seven Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains to be adulterants in select raw beef products back in the 1990s, it relied on several factors, including the available information on serotypes linked to human illnesses, infectious dose, severity of illnesses and typical consumer preparation practices associated with a product. The breaded stuffed chicken products determination relied on the same factors.

FSIS will continue to evaluate and, if necessary, refine its policies and standards related to the oversight of raw breaded stuffed chicken products as advances in science and technology related to pathogen levels, serotypes, laboratory methods and infectious dose become available.

Salmonella contamination in other raw poultry products is set to be addressed by FSIS later this year.

To find out more, visit the FSIS Federal Register Rules webpage.

Image credit: iStock.com/Saminaleo