United States-Salmonell Zero Tolerence impossible.

UNITED STATES-SALMONELA MYTH FROM REALITY.

Is it realistic to expect raw foods to be completely salmonella-free? That was the question tackled recently by an unprecedented international committee of 26 scientific experts from 16 countries and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.

Their consensus findings will be the focus of a presentation and panel discussion Thursday at the International Poultry Exposition. The hour-long session will begin at 9 a.m. in room C101 of the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.

The blue-chip panel was assembled by an ad hoc group of food safety experts to forge consensus within the international scientific community as to realistic goals, measures and effective control strategies relating to salmonella.

Among others, the committee included Michael P. Doyle, Regents Professor and Director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia; Geoffrey Mead (retired), of the Royal Veterinary College, University of London; Nelson A. Cox of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service; and Yvonne Vizzier Thaxton, professor of poultry science at Mississippi State University and Executive Editor of Poultry.

The panel’s resulting document is designed to offer regulators a slate of scientific recommendations for developing risk management strategies. Among the committee’s findings and recommendations, the committee concluded that:

zero-tolerance policies are a false security as they imply the complete absence of salmonella from an individual carcass. This cannot be guaranteed without 100 percent testing, which, by definition, would leave no product on the market.

procedures and regulations are not universally applicable, and there is more than one way to achieve control of salmonella in poultry;

standardized methods for sampling, testing and process control records should be developed for international trade;

standards or guidelines for good salmonella control biosecurity practices should be established, implemented and monitored; and

if control is not completely effective in live production, control becomes more challenging and important in the processing plant.