WASHINGTON – The Food Safety and Inspection Service recently reviewed the operations at plants where young turkeys or chickens were slaughtered to assess their compliance with the proposed Salmonella performance standards, which are not yet formally in effect. FSIS has been measuring the industry’s performance to determine what percent of establishments would have met the agency’s 90% compliance goal by the end of 2010 had they been in effect.

FSIS concluded that as of Dec. 13, 87.3% of young chicken slaughter plants would have met the new standard. FSIS also projected that between 87.3% and 92.5% of young chicken slaughter establishments would have met the new standard for 2010 – based on past and current trends and assuming the passing rate holds steady or rises, according to the National Chicken Council.


NCC notes the new performance standard is set at 7.5%, a maximum of five positive samples in a 51-bird sample set.

As of last week, 88.2% of young turkey slaughter establishments would have met the new Salmonella standard for turkeys, FSIS noted. The agency projected, using the same parameters it used for the young chicken slaughter establishments, that between 88.2% and 94.1% of young turkey slaughter establishments would have met the new standard for 2010 had they been in effect. The new standard for turkeys is 1.7%, a maximum of four positives in a 56-bird sample set.