Why are chicken executives stonewalling consumers on food safety?

I’ve been around food safety for nearly 50 years in government, academia, and the private sector. I’ve seen a lot of progress to make food safer for consumers, often led by the food industry itself. And I’ve seen examples of resistance.

But I’ve never seen a campaign of resistance on food safety more brazen and seemingly hypocritical than the one the chicken industry is waging today.

It’s about Salmonella in chicken. In ground beef, dangerous forms of E. coli are legally prohibited, but there is no USDA regulatory limit on Salmonella in chicken. Every day, Salmonella-contaminated chicken leaves processing plants with unknown and legally unlimited levels of this dangerous bacteria, all with USDA’s stamp of approval visible on the label. Astounding, but true.

And consequential. Some 125,000 people get sick and too many are hospitalized and die every year from Salmonella in chicken. The stories of their experiences are excruciating.