The Agriculture Department has since 2019 lagged in finalizing new standards for salmonella or campylobacter in meat and poultry products, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Wednesday that recommended the agency assess human health risks that may stem from the lack of new standards.
The agency in 2018 designated salmonella as an adulterant if found at certain levels in some breaded stuffed chicken products. But since then, no new standards have been put in place for campylobacter or other pathogens in meat and poultry products, as the agency has shifted its focus to a framework of standards for salmonella in raw poultry, the report said. USDA has not "assessed whether this shift in focus has caused any gaps in oversight."
Officials who spoke with GAO said they see the new framework as having more potential to reduce foodborne illnesses, and expressed concern about the efficiency of continuing to work on specific standards.
Still, "outbreaks continue to occur that involve products for which FSIS has not updated or developed pathogen standards since 2018 or earlier," the report said.
The agency has paused work on four standards: one for salmonella in raw ground beef and beef trimmings, one for campylobacter in not ready-to-eat comminuted chicken, one for campylobacter in not ready-to-eat comminuted turkey, and one for salmonella in raw comminuted pork and pork cuts.
Standards for salmonella in beef and pork have not been updated since 1996, while the agency has finalized no standards for salmonella pork cuts, ground pork and turkey parts. It also has not issued standards for campylobacter in turkey parts, the report said.
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Meanwhile, foodborne illness outbreaks have continued, with some coming from products without updated standards. After looking through Food Safety and Inspection Service Foodborne Illness Outbreak Investigation reports between 2018 and 2023, GAO found 29 of 52 outbreaks involving salmonella, listeria, monocytogenes and shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) occurred in beef products, which caused 3,220 infections and more than 845 hospitalizations.
GAO recommended the FSIS administrator develop a "prioritization plan to fully document which products to address and the additional policies needed to effectively address pathogen reduction for salmonella in meat and standards for campylobacter in turkey parts." It also recommended the FSIS administrator review public health impacts of delaying proposed pathogen standards, update the agency's memorandum of understanding with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service regarding responsibilities for when outbreaks occur, and offer educational materials to regulated plants.
FSIS neither agreed nor disagreed with the recommendations.
In a letter responding to GAO's report, José Emilio Esteban, USDA undersecretary for the office of food safety, pointed to other efforts the agency has taken in recent years to reduce pathogen impacts. It has, for example, tasked the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods with determining how the agency can better use genomic data to prevent and combat outbreaks, updated egg product inspection regulations and used more efficient sampling methods for STEC and salmonella in beef. The agency also releases industry guidelines for several meat products, it says.
He added that the agency has noticed "consistent reductions in the occurrence of salmonella in poultry products over the years", though "these reductions have not correlated with a reduction in illnesses attributable to salmonella in poultry." Because more than 1 million consumer illnesses are caused by salmonella each year, Esteban said the agency "determined it was time to reconsider our approach to salmonella in poultry, adopting this effort as a top priority in 2021."
That, Esteban said, led to the proposed salmonella framework for poultry.
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