Trump Admin Scraps Plan to Limit Salmonella in Poultry
The Trump administration is rolling back a Biden-era proposal that would have required poultry companies to limit salmonella bacteria in their products to prevent food poisoning.
After receiving what the Agriculture Department said were 7,000 comments about the proposed rule — from stakeholders that included the poultry and meat industry, members of Congress, and a risk assessment firm — the USDA withdrew the plan “to further assess its approach for addressing Salmonella illnesses associated with poultry product.”
The Biden Administration effort had aimed to reduce salmonella illnesses by 25 percent, per a Federal Register notice, by requiring poultry companies selling chicken or turkey products to keep levels of salmonella bacteria under a certain threshold and test for six dangerous salmonella strains. If the threshold was exceeded or any of the strains were identified, the poultry product would be pulled and subject to recall.
Every year, there are over 1.3 million salmonella infections in the United States, the notice stated, adding that rate had not changed in the past two decades.
On Friday, food officials claimed that the proposed plan would impose an “overwhelming burden” on small poultry producers and processors and said the USDA would “evaluate whether it should update” current salmonella regulations.
President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee received a record amount of cash, with a significant portion coming from Pilgrim’s Pride. The poultry company was the largest donor to Trump’s inaugural committee, donating $5 million. Two of the company’s executives — CEO Fabio Sandri and Kendra Waldbusser, the company’s head of food safety and quality assurance — serve alongside many other execs on the board of the National Chicken Council, a lobbying group that called on the USDA to rescind the proposed plan and “consider alternative approaches for addressing Salmonella in raw poultry products.” The company agreed last year to pay a $100 million antitrust settlement for scheming with other food companies to keep chicken farmers underpaid.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-admin-scraps-plan-limit-025813752.htmlMSGA?
