The Foster Farms Salmonella outbreak has a recurring theme: Yes, Foster Farms chicken has Salmonella on it, but so does a lot of other chicken. There have been two Salmonella outbreaks linked to Foster Farms chicken this year and during both of them the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the California Department of Public Health, Foster Farms and others have all made that point accompanied with advice that consumers ought to handle raw chicken with care.
Handling raw foods with care is good advice: don’t cross contaminate, use a meat thermometer, wash your hands. But is there a level of contamination that tips the scales decidedly out of the consumer’s favor?
Consider that one of the only recalls issued in connection with this outbreak, which has sickened at least 317 people in 20 states, was for rotisserie chicken prepared and cooked at a Costco store in San Francisco. A single Costco store prepares a lot of rotisserie chicken each day, more than most consumers would in years. Yet, Salmonella recalls are not pouring out of this store. Why?
Dr. Katrina Hedberg, Oregon’s state epidemiologist, suggested in the Portland Oregonian, “We’re not seeing an outbreak because people suddenly decided they like to eat their chicken rare. If you’re suddenly seeing an uptick in cases, it’s probably because there’s more bacteria.”
She’s right on both counts. It’s not consumers’ fault and there is more bacteria. USDA inspectors found Salmonella on 27 percent of chicken parts samples they tested from Foster Farms plant in Fresno. That’s more than three and half times the federal standard for Salmonella on whole raw chicken. (There isn’t a standard for parts.)
The level was high enough to generate an enforcement letter telling Foster Farms to clean things up, but the USDA can’t force a shutdown or a recall based solely on Salmonella levels exceeding the standard on raw chicken. They tried that with Supreme Beef in 2001, were sued, and lost.
That leaves things up to the companies and the consumers. Foster Farms has not issued a recall because it has not been asked to do so by the state or federal authorities. Kroger and Walmart have issued recalls. Consumers should keep an eye out. The raw chicken in question was produced under a variety of brand names including: Eating Right, Kirkland Signature, O Organics, Open Nature, Ralphs, Safeway Farms, and Simple Truth Organic with the establishment code P-6137, P-6137A, and P-7632. Anyone who has purchased this chicken should not eat it,
