A new study at UC-Davis has identified many risky practices of consumers in their homes. The study looked at the preparation of raw poultry. The two most common mistakes were cross contamination and insufficient cooking. Christine Bruhn, director of the Center for consumer research at the university, who authored the study said in a statement, "the most surprising aspect of these findings to me was the prevalence of undercooking. We are now in summer, the peak season for foodborne illness, and these results come at a time when more consumers can benefit from being aware of better food safety practices." Those good practices include always washing hands with soap and water before cooking and after handling raw meat, poultry and eggs, never rinsing poultry in the sink, and always using … [Read more...]
Swiss Study Finds Raw Chicken in Hospitals has E. coli
A study published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, a publication of the Society for Healthcare epidemiology of America, found that more than 80% of raw chicken that enters the hospital food supply is contaminated with E. coli bacteria. The study tested raw chicken delivered to the central hospital kitchen at the University Hospital of Geneva in Switzerland. The bacteria is a new antibiotic resistant form called extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) that produces E. coli. Dr. Andrew Stewardson, the lead author of the study said in a statement, "while a high proportion of chicken contaminated by antibiotic resistant E. coli is a significant concern, robust food safety measures taken by hospital kitchen staff are able to prevent the spread of these pathogens and minimize … [Read more...]
More Salmonella in Chicken Parts Than Whole Chickens
The USDA is saying that Salmonella rates in young chickens have dropped 75% since 2006. But at the same time, rates of Salmonella infections in people that are linked to chicken have not decreased. More than a million Americans are sickened by Salmonella in poultry every year. There is a good reason for this: the Salmonella rate is measured on whole chickens, not parts. And more people buy chicken parts, which are more likely to be contaminated, than whole chickens. The current Salmonella outbreak linked to Foster Farms chickens found that 24% of the chicken parts products were contaminated with at least one strain of Salmonella. That is three times the rate of contamination on whole chickens and equivalent to the over rate of chicken part contamination in the marketplace. In … [Read more...]
Food & Water Watch Skewers USDA Again on Salmonella Plans
Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch, has responded to USDA's claims that their email telling inspectors to not interfere with industry collection of Salmonella data was appropriate. In a statement she said that, "what was troubling about the email was that it told the district managers that the purpose of the data collection was for the industry to develop its own voluntary pathogen performance standards that it was going to enforce on poultry processing plants. It went on to say that FSIS inspection personnel assigned to the plants were not to interfere with the National Chicken Council data collection and that they had no right to look at the data that was collected. "In other words, the poultry industry would create the standards for pathogen levels in … [Read more...]
USDA Tells Staff Not to Interfere with Poultry Industry Voluntary Pathogen Reduction Effort
Food & Water Watch has obtained an internal email by the USDA regarding a new data collection effort by the National Chicken Council. According to the email, The National Chicken Council is spearheading an effort to "collect samples from chicken parts from most all poultry establishments in order to collectively work on voluntary pathogen reduction performance goals that the industry will self-impose using their own industry-wide aggregate data." The email, dated January 17, 2014 and sent to USDA-FSIS district managers, states that the USDA approves of the National Chicken Council effort and does not want in-plant USDA-FSIS inspectors and field supervisors to question this effort or to take steps to force poultry processing plants to turn over the results of the sampling. The email … [Read more...]
Chicken Safety and Cross-Contamination Issues in Restaurants
A study published in the Journal of Food Protection has found there is a big problem in restaurants and chicken preparation. The study found that many restaurants do not follow the FDA Food Code guidance about cross-contamination prevention and proper cooking, and that managers do not have the basic food safety knowledge about chicken. Forty percent of managers said they "never, rarely, or only sometimes designate certain cutting boards for raw meat." One-third of managers said they did not wash and rinse surfaces before sanitizing them. Over half of managers said thermometers weren't used to determine the final internal temperature of chicken. And more than 50% of managers did not know the safe final internal temperature of cooked chicken. Finally, more than half of the managers rinsed … [Read more...]
Don’t Want Chicken from China? Sign the Petition!
Food & Water Watch has been speaking out against the USDA's decision to allow poultry products processed in China to be sold in the U.S. The USDA has admitted that China's poultry slaughter program is not equivalent to the U.S. program, so chickens raised in China cannot be exported to the U.S. But the American government is considering letting the Chinese food industry process chickens raised elsewhere. The plan will save agribusiness money, since processing costs are lower in China. But since there will be no U.S. inspectors in China watching the processing process, there's no guarantee the Chinese companies won't use Chinese-raised chickens. The poultry that's cooked and processed in China will not be labeled as such, because of a loophole in the country of origin labeling rules. … [Read more...]
Consumer Reports: Most Chicken Harbors Pathogenic Bacteria
A new report to be published in the February 2014 issue of Consumer Reports finds that 97% of the chicken breasts they tested harbor pathogenic bacteria. Most deaths from food poisoning in the U.S. are attributed to poultry. So Americans must now assume that the raw chicken they bring into their houses is a hazard. Scientists analyzed more than 300 raw chicken breasts purchased across the U.S. More than half of those samples contained at least one bacterium that was resistant to three or more antibiotics. The Foster Farms outbreak this fall is just one example of the problem. Forty percent of those sickened in that outbreak were hospitalized, which is double the usual percentage, because the bacteria were antibiotic resistant. That makes salmonellosis much more difficult to treat. In … [Read more...]
Chinese Chicken Proves Unfit
Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, has released a statement on the USDA's decision to let processed chicken from China enter U.S. borders. This decision was made a few weeks ago, but yesterday USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service admitted that China's poultry slaughter system is not equivalent to the U.S. system. That means China is not eligible to ship poultry products made from Chinese-raised chickens to the U.S. Ms. Hauter said, "China's food safety record is horrific and there are serious concerns with avian influenza. We have also just learned that USDA Secretary Vilsack is scheduled to visit China next week. We sincerely hope that this visit will not be a prelude to a new audit of the Chinese poultry slaughter system. USDA should stop wasting … [Read more...]
Should Salmonella Victims Sue Foster Farms for Outbreak Linked to Chicken?
The hundreds of Salmonella victims sickened by Foster Farms chicken should not be left to bear the financial responsibility of the outbreak. The company allegedly produced chicken contaminated with antibiotic-strains of Salmonella Heidelberg. People who were sickened after eating this chicken have to pay medical bills incurred because of their illness. There may be good evidence linking the Salmonella Heidelberg infections to Foster Farms chicken. The epidemiologic evidence is persuasive. When health officials interviewed 132 people sickened in the outbreak, 105 of them (80%) reported eating chicken prepared at home in the week before becoming ill, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of the 61 people in this group that had brand information, 48 (79%) … [Read more...]
