Current poultry food safety guidelines do not stop salmonella outbreaks


Date:
August 26, 2020
Source:
Society for Risk Analysis
Summary:
Current poultry food safety guidelines for Salmonella, the leading
cause of foodborne illness outbreaks, are inadequate. Researchers
describe additional factors that must be considered in order to
identify poultry products that are truly safe for human consumption.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Current poultry food safety guidelines for Salmonella, the leading cause
of foodborne illness outbreaks, are inadequate. A new study conducted by
Thomas Oscar, USDA Agricultural Research Service, "Salmonella prevalence
alone is not a good indicator of poultry food safety," published in Risk Analysis, explores additional factors that must be considered in order
to identify poultry products that are truly safe for human consumption.


==========================================================================
The poultry industry currently uses Salmonella prevalence or positivity
rate as an indicator of food safety, but there are numerous other
factors that influence the level of risk to public health. This study
showed that even though other meats like ground chicken could have a
lower Salmonella prevalence than ground turkey at meal preparation,
they could pose a higher risk of salmonellosis if they are contaminated
with higher numbers of more virulent serotypes of Salmonella.

The current approach to food safety in the poultry industry consists of
two pillars:
* Pathogen reduction and process control to reduce consumer
exposure to
these harmful pathogens;
* Active surveillance to identify foodborne illness outbreaks with
subsequent recalls of implicated foods.

These approaches are limited because pathogen prevalence is not the only
risk factor for an outbreak and in the second pillar, harm to public
health occurs before corrective action is taken.

Present food safety reviews do not include data such as Salmonella
serotype and virulence and number, incidence and extent of temperature
abuse, incidence and extent of undercooking, incidence and extent of cross-contamination during meal preparation, food consumption behavior,
and host resistance which are important risk factors for salmonellosis
from ground turkey and other poultry products.

Processing plants with a high prevalence of Salmonella on its poultry
meat do not necessarily pose a higher risk of salmonellosis. Rather,
poultry meat from a processing plant with a lower prevalence of Salmonella could pose a higher risk if:
* A more virulent serotype(s) is(are) present; * The meat is shipped
to a distribution channel with: * A higher incidence or extent of
temperature abuse; * A higher incidence or extent of undercooking; *
A higher incidence or extent of cross-contamination of ready-to-eat
food; * A higher proportion of higher-risk food consumption behaviors;
* A higher proportion of high-risk customers.

The study concludes that to increase food safety, a process risk model
or computer model should be applied at the processing plant exit to
integrate pathogen contamination data and post-processing risk factors
to provide an objective description regarding the safety of individual
lots of food before they are shipped to consumers. A more holistic
approach to poultry food safety that considers Salmonella serotype,
virulence, and number, and incidence and extent of temperature abuse, undercooking and cross-contamination, and food consumption behavior and
host resistance is needed to better protect the public from foodborne
pathogens like Salmonella.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Society_for_Risk_Analysis. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Thomas Oscar. Salmonella Prevalence Alone Is Not a Good Indicator of
Poultry Food Safety. Risk Analysis, 2020; DOI: 10.1111/risa.13563 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200826131855.htm

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