Chickens in a barn. Tyson Foods will pay $10.5 million to settle a price-fixing case with Washington state’s attorney general.

The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has proposed a new rule to more effectively reduce salmonella contamination and illnesses associated with raw poultry products.

The agency estimates there are 125,000 chicken-associated and almost 43,000 turkey associated salmonella illnesses per year. Despite FSIS data indicating that salmonella contamination in poultry products has been decreasing, there has not been an observed reduction in salmonella illnesses.

The proposal would establish final product standards to prevent raw chicken carcasses, chicken parts, ground chicken and ground turkey products that contain any type of salmonella at or above 10 colony forming units (CFU) per gram/ml and any detectable level of at least one of the salmonella serotypes of public health significance from entering commerce.

The proposal would also require poultry establishments to develop a microbial monitoring program to prevent pathogen contamination throughout the slaughter system.

Comments on this proposal must be received within 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.

Comments may be submitted online via the federal eRulemaking portal, available at www.regulations.gov; by mail sent to Docket Clerk, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Mailstop 3758, Washington, D.C. 20250-3700, or by hand or courier delivery to 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Jamie L. Whitten Building, Room 350-E, Washington, D.C. 20250-3700. All items submitted by mail or electronic mail must include the agency name and docket number FSIS-2023-0028.

Leslee Oden, president and CEO of the National Turkey Federation, said the organization and its members have actively contributed industry data to the FSIS’s salmonella risk assessment and maintained contact with the agency to identify practical solutions that build on the turkey industry’s ongoing effort to combat salmonella throughout turkey production.

“While NTF believes that FSIS already possesses the authority and regulatory tools necessary to drive improvements in food safety without implementing a final product standard for salmonella in turkey products, we will diligently review and provide meaningful comment on the proposal,” Oden said in a press release. “NTF believes any standard should be science-based and should not impose unnecessary costs and product destruction for members of the U.S. turkey industry.”