WASHINGTON — The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announces that it has extended until Jan. 17, 2025, the comment period for the new proposals associated with the “Salmonella Framework for Raw Poultry Products.”
The initial deadline was Oct. 7, and it was extended to Nov. 7 after the National Chicken Council filed an extension request.
The Co-Chairs of the Congressional Chicken Caucus, Reps. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.) agree that an extension was needed and sent a letter in September asking for another 180 days.
“Given the complexity and length of the proposed rule and the fact that nearly all chicken marketed in the United States will be impacted, we believe it is essential to provide affected integrators and producers with additional time to offer thorough and meaningful feedback,” Womack and Costa said in their letter. “Furthermore, the rule raises numerous questions due to its lack of clarity, making an extended comment period even more critical.”
NCC also sent a letter requesting more time in September.
“NCC member companies – and all facilities that process broiler chickens – will be significantly impacted by the agency’s proposal, and, to date, the agency has provided little to no clarification on pertinent and critical questions that will have significant consequences to continuity of business and even the survivability of some broiler chicken companies,” Dr. Ashley B. Peterson, NCC’s senior vice president, scientific and regulatory affairs, said in the council’s letter.
“Further, the proposal is fundamentally detailed and complex risk assessments and public health modeling,” Peterson added. “These are extremely technical documents requiring substantial time and special skills to analyze fully, but understanding these documents and any limitations is critical for meaningfully evaluating the proposal. The agency has spent years developing these materials, and stakeholders must have a real opportunity to properly review them to meaningfully provide comments.”
Stop Foodborne Illness, Consumer Reports, the Consumer Federation of America, and the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University, also sent a joint letter in September to Dr. Emilio Esteban, USDA’s undersecretary for food safety, requesting a six-month extension from Nov. 7 to the comment period.
“We support setting rigorous standards for certain serotypes of Salmonella, be we are concerned that the proposed rule lacks any regulatory standard for Salmonella spp.,” the group’s letter noted. “We agree that the current enforceable Salmonella performance standards are obsolete, but we do not believe the solution is to dispense with all regulatory accountability for preventing contamination with Salmonella serotypes other than the ones subject to serotype-specific standards.”
The group’s letter continued that they, “. . . believe an enforceable, quantitative Salmonella spp. standard that complements the serotype-specific standards is essential to fulfilling USDA’s regulatory and public health responsibility to hold poultry processors accountable for doing everything they reasonably can to reduce Salmonella illnesses. The presence of a quantitative Salmonella spp. standard would incentivize companies to maintain comprehensive programs to broadly prevent Salmonella contamination in their operations. We know that illnesses are caused by serotypes other than the ones USDA proposes to target. A Salmonella spp. standard would help prevent them.”