Trump Administration Withdraws Salmonella Testing Plan for Poultry

In a move that’s outraged public health experts, the Trump administration has withdrawn a proposed regulation that would have limited salmonella content in raw poultry and required producers to test their products for salmonella before selling them. The USDA announced the move last week, explaining that “additional consideration is needed” regarding whether or not the rule is necessary. There are around 1.35 million salmonella infections every year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and the USDA estimates that 168,000 of these infections come from chicken and turkey.

“FSIS is withdrawing its proposed rule and determination titled ‘Salmonella Framework for Raw Poultry Products’, published on August 7, 2024, to further assess its approach for addressing Salmonella illnesses associated with poultry products,” the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service wrote in a blog post. “Based on the input received from stakeholders, FSIS will evaluate whether it should update the current poultry Salmonella performance standards.”

The USDA said that its decision was based on public comments that the rule received after it was proposed, though the agency didn’t say which comments in particular it was swayed by. The agency didn’t respond to Sentient’s request for comment on its decision. However, the USDA did send a statement to CIDRAP News, saying, “The Biden-era proposal would have imposed significant financial and operational burdens on American businesses and consumers, failing to consider an effective and achievable approach to address Salmonella in poultry products.”

The withdrawn rule was formally proposed by the Biden administration in 2024, and had been in the making for three years. It would have required producers of ground chicken, turkey parts and other raw poultry products to test their meat for salmonella, and prohibited them from distributing it if certain levels of salmonella were detected.

There are many different types of salmonella. Six strains in particular are responsible for 99 percent of salmonella illnesses in humans; the proposed rule would have banned raw poultry with any detectable amount of those strains, and poultry with levels of more than 10 colony-forming units per gram of the other strains, from being distributed and sold.

When the Biden administration first announced the framework for the new rule in 2022, it was cheered by public health advocates as a much-needed step forward in the fight against foodborne illness. Now, advocates of food safety are slamming the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw it. 

“The decision by the Trump administration to repeal [this] proposal will let poultry processors continue to ship raw chicken and turkey even after products test positive for high levels of the most dangerous strains of Salmonella,” Sarah Sorscher, Director of Regulatory Affairs at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said in a statement. “Make no mistake: Shipping more Salmonella to restaurants and grocery stores is certain to make Americans sicker.”

Sandra Eskin, a former undersecretary at the USDA and currently the CEO of Stop Foodborne Illness, said that the administration’s decision “sends the clear message that the ‘Make America Healthy [Again]’ initiative does not care about the thousands of people who get sick from preventable foodborne Salmonella infections linked to poultry.”

Some in the poultry industry, however, were pleased by the decision. The National Chicken Council, a trade association for chicken farmers, wrote on its website that it “appreciate[s] today’s announcement by FSIS,” arguing the rule was “legally unsound” and would have “increased costs for producers and consumers.”

The organization also claimed that the regulation would have “no meaningful impact on public health.”

The withdrawal of the rule was also cheered by the American Pastured Poultry Association, which wrote on Facebook that it was “thrilled” with the decision, as well as a poultry farmer in Rhode Island, who told a local newspaper that he now had “one less thing to worry about.”

Since taking office in January, President Trump has reduced or limited federal attempts to ensure the safety of America’s food supply on a number of occasions, a continuation of his approach to food safety during his first term.

In March, the president eliminated two USDA committees, the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection and the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods, and postponed an FDA rule that would have required food companies and grocers to trace and recall tainted food. The FDA also recently suspended a milk testing program that aimed to combat the spread of bird flu. 

Earlier in April, the administration announced that it will postpone, but not withdraw, a different USDA rule that will regulate salmonella levels in certain stuffed and breaded raw chicken products. The implementation of that rule, which was originally set for May, has been delayed until November.