Recently, the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) proposed new performance standards for salmonella and campylobacter in chicken and turkey slaughterhouses. Both those bacteria can cause abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and fever in humans. They can be deadly to the very young and very old, and to those with compromised immune systems.

This is a huge step forward; FSIS not only lowered the acceptable level of salmonella, but also established its first standards for campylobacter. The agency estimates that after two years 39,000 illnesses will be avoided each year under the new campylobacter standards, and 26,000 under the revised salmonella standards.

Until now, salmonella contamination prevalence of up to 20 percent was allowed in chicken slaughterhouses. The new standards require prevalence of less than 7.5 percent. Much better, but can they go further? Yes. It is possible to achieve a much lower rate; Consumer Reports tests on store-brand organic chicken found no salmonella contamination at all.

In order to achieve that level of cleanliness at slaughterhouses, Michael Hansen, senior staff scientist at Consumers Union, recommends that the FSIS tighten the standards every two years.

The campylobacter standard limits the prevalence to less than 46.7 percent. While it’s good that we finally have a proposed standard for those bacteria, we believe that FSIS should work to—somewhat more gradually—tighten this standard too.

Slaughter establishments will now fall into one of three categories, depending on whether they fail to meet, somewhat exceed, or greatly exceed the performance standards for both salmonella and campylobacter. Currently, the categories are in use for salmonella only. Names of establishments in the latter two are made publicly available, but the names of facilities in the middle category aren’t always published. Consumers Union believes that’s a lost opportunity. Publishing the names of facilities that just somewhat exceed the standard would provide an incentive for those slaughterhouses to clean up their act and aim for the highest performance possible. We think all facilities in latter two categories should always be published and that this system be used for campylobacter as well.

Read Consumers Union’s public statement on the issues here (PDF).

-Jason Harary