General Interest Scientific and Teechnical Factors Affecting the Setting of Salmonella Criteria for Raw Poultry: A Global Perspective

Abstract

Concerns about foodborne salmonellosis have led many countries to introduce microbiological criteria for certain food products. If such criteria are not well-grounded in science, they can be an unjustified obstacle to trade. Raw poultry products are an important part of the global food market. Import / export ambiguities, as well as regulatory confusion resulting from different Salmonella requirements, were the impetus for convening an international group of scientific experts from 16 countries to discuss the scientific and technical factors that affect the setting of a microbiological criterion for Salmonella contamination of raw chicken. A particular concern for the group was the use of criteria implying a ‗zero tolerance' for Salmonella and suggesting complete absence of the pathogen. The notion can be interpreted differently by various stakeholders and was considered inappropriate because there is neither an effective means of eliminating Salmonella from raw poultry nor any practical method for verifying its absence.Therefore, it may be more useful at present to set food-safety metrics that involve reductions in hazard levels. Using terms such as ‗zero tolerance' or ‗absence of a microbe' in relation to raw poultry should be avoided unless defined and explained by international agreement.Risk assessment provides a more meaningful approach than a zero-tolerance philosophy and new metrics, such as performance objectives that are linked to human health outcomes, should be utilized throughout the food chain to help in defining risk and identifying ways to reduce adverse effects on public health.PAGE 4 IntroductionThe association between poultry and Salmonella has a long history. More than 50 years ago, pullorum disease and fowl typhoid were common causes of mortality in chicken and turkey flocks, and development of the industry was delayed until these diseases were brought under control (147). Subsequently, a different problem emerged with the increasing isolation of nonhost-specific salmonellae from both poultry products and cases of human salmonellosis.Because of an apparent linkage between the two, fuelled by the intensive nature of poultry production and processing, which was seen to facilitate pathogen transmission, global efforts to control Salmonella in the poultry industry have increasingly gathered pace and particularly in the years following the pandemic spread of Salmonella Enteritidis in the late 1980s. However, fulfillment of this goal has not been easy. In the production of raw foods, such as chicken meat, there are multiple constraints in attempting to eliminate microbial health hazards, and these are both socio-economic and scientific (i.e., biological, technological and analytical). Food animal production and processing in different parts of the world are faced with similar challenges, such as the frequent presence of potentially pathogenic microorganisms that rarely cause disease in food animals but may do so in humans, along with the very nature of an industry in which environmental co...

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