October 8, 2007

USDA to publish salmonella statuses of poultry farms

The USDA may soon publish the salmonella statuses of poultry plants online.

Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner told the National Chicken Council annual conference that the USDA would want to be the first to get the information out to consumers. 

Conner compared the importance of disseminating such information to that of notifying the public of an outbreak of bird flu or mad cow disease.

When dealing with news affecting consumers, the USDA needs to get it out fully and quickly, he said.

The USDA has promised to cut down on the time it takes to launch recalls of contaminated meats after it was criticised for taking 18 days to launch the recall of hamburger patties from Topps Co. Topps, one of the largest hamburger patty producers in the country, launched the largest meat recall in its history last week, involving 21 million pounds of beef, after a dozen people were sickened after eating  e.coli-contaminated patties from the company.