The chicken industry is reeling after a report shows salmonella is rampant in grocery store chicken

Salmonella is rampant in U.S. grocery store chicken and turkey products, a new report based on government inspection documents shows. But because of how the disease is classified, the federal government doesn’t have the power to do much about it.

Farm Forward, an organization that advocates for farmers’ rights and the humane practices of agricultural farms, released a report this week examining the USDA’s five-year monthly inspections of large U.S. poultry plants. It found that at many plants, including those that process chicken and sell it under brand names such as Foster Farms, Costco and Purdue, salmonella levels routinely exceeded maximum standards set by the federal government.

“The USDA is knowingly allowing millions of packages of salmonella-contaminated chicken to be sold at major brand stores,” said Andrew Decorioulis, the organization’s executive director.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1.3 million Americans become ill each year after eating food contaminated with Salmonella. Most people have only mild symptoms, but others experience diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. About 19,000 people are hospitalized annually, and an estimated 420 die from contaminated food.

According to the 2021 government report on foodborne illness, chicken and turkey account for nearly a quarter of all salmonella infections.

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service inspects poultry plants monthly. A new report shows that five U.S. poultry plants exceeded acceptable levels of Salmonella contamination every month from 2020 to 2024. These include a turkey plant in Carthage, Mo., owned by Butterball, a turkey plant in Dayton, Va., owned by Cargill Meat Solutions, and a poultry plant located in Cunningham, Va. Costco’s chicken producer, Lincoln Premium Chicken, exceeded the standard in 54 of 59 inspections.

“Lincoln Premium Poultry treats the safety of its products as a top concern,” Jessica Colterman, the company’s director of administration, said in an email. “When the USDA reports are updated and published, they will show that we have improved our position. … We will improve our processes.”

A Butterball spokesperson said the company “takes food safety very seriously and follows all USDA and FSIS regulations and inspection protocols.” The spokesperson said the facilities are subject to strict, ongoing oversight, and they are “constantly reviewing and improving our food safety programs to ensure we meet or exceed government standards.”

Cargill, Purdue and Koch Foods did not respond to requests for comment. Foster Farms directed the industry trade group’s questions to the National Poultry Council.

“Consumers should not be concerned,” said Tom Soper, a spokesman for the Poultry Council. He said the report was “unscientific” and described Farm Forward as an “activist organization” that aims to end commercial chicken farming.

Both Super and Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation, said chickens are safe when cooked to 160 degrees, and knives, cutting boards and other items that might come into contact with raw meat are disinfected and cleaned.

“All chicken is safe to eat when properly washed and cooked,” Mattos said, adding that annually “Californians eat more chicken than any other state … 110 pounds per person!”

The report also suggests that the federal government’s standards for acceptable levels of Salmonella are unreasonably high, potentially putting American chicken consumers at risk.

For ground chicken, the USDA allows up to 25% of samples to be contaminated at the plant. For ground turkey, 13.5%. Chicken parts should not exceed 15.4% of the contaminated samples, while this figure is 9.8% for all chickens.

“I don’t know, but it seems common sense to me that if you let in a lot of salmonella, a lot of people are going to get sick,” said Bill Marler, an attorney at Marler Clark, a national food safety firm.

When inspectors visit a plant, they do not evaluate the bacterial load of the meat, nor do they determine the bacterial strain found in the product. They only test for the presence of bacteria – it’s either there or not.

According to Marler and Maurice Petsky, a poultry science specialist at UC Davis, there are hundreds of types — or serotypes — of Salmonella. Most are considered harmless, but about 30 are known to be potentially fatal to humans.

As a result, USDA inspections don’t give a clear picture of what’s out there, Petsky said.

“When I hear something has salmonella, I say, ‘Okay, first question: I want to know its serotype. What kind of serotype is it?’ Because that’s a really relevant piece of information,” he said.

When inspectors find that a plant has exceeded the standard for salmonella, there is little they can do other than report it. The agency does not have the authority to enforce standards.

In the 1990s, Marler said, after four children died and hundreds of people became ill after eating ground beef contaminated with E. coli sold at Jack in the Box restaurants, the agency decided to classify the bacteria as adulterant. This designation meant that the USDA could stop selling contaminated products, or shut down a plant that failed an inspection.

He said the meat industry initially backed away, fearing it would lose money — which it did at first.

He said the USDA started doing retail testing, “and for a while, it felt like there was a weekly recall — you know … there were 50, 100, a thousand pounds, a million pounds, even 10 million pounds.” Eventually, however, companies started testing their products “and coming up with interventions to get rid of it. And you know what? The number of E. coli cases with hamburgers went down.”

He said he now sees the case only once in a while.

“I kind of look at it and think, if you can get salmonella from chickens, you’re probably going to reduce that incidence as well,” he said.

Petsky said salmonella is unfortunately difficult to eradicate. It can be introduced to herds from wild animals such as birds, rats, mice and other wild animals. It is also found in the intestines of chickens, on their skin, feathers and feet, and it is spread between them when they cough, urinate and move in the same bed, etc.

However, Marler thinks it can be controlled.

“Yes, it’s difficult,” he said. “But you can only do so much. And it might upset people, but you can destroy the herd with salmonella. They do it all the time in the EU.”

The European Union considers Salmonella an adulterant, and requires producers to reduce and control it through biosecurity, testing, vaccinations, recalls and sometimes culling.

“The truth is, if you make salmonella contamination expensive, if there’s a reminder and people feel ashamed that they’re producing food that sickens or kills people, they’re going to change their behavior,” he said.