The fish and poultry industries propose moving from a zero tolerance policy on certain dangerous foodborne pathogens to an “acceptable risk” policy—given how widely contaminated their products are with potentially deadly fecal bacteria.
Zero Tolerance to Acceptable Risk
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According to the latest published national Retail Meat Report, more than 80% of retail chicken breasts sold in the United States are contaminated with fecal matter—up from about 70% seven years before. 80% fecal contamination, and that’s completely legal.
But there are a few bugs for which there is zero tolerance. That does not make the meat industry happy. As the president of the Seafood Importers and Processors Association wrote in their article “Beyond zero tolerance: a new approach to food safety,” they propose a “risk-based approach instead of a precautionary approach.”
From a recent article about raw poultry, instead of zero tolerance, “Alternative terminology should be used…such as ‘acceptable’ or ‘tolerable’ risk..” Instead of zero tolerance policies on potentially deadly bacteria on chicken, they propose ALOP, an “appropriate level of protection,” an acceptable risk—a certain “number of cases per 100,000 population per year associated with a specific hazard in a [particular] food commodity.”
“Given the nature of the poultry industry, controls that are currently applied will not guarantee the absence of Salmonella from raw poultry.” It’s just the way we raise chickens. Therefore, using terms such as “zero tolerance or absence of a microbe in relation to raw poultry should [therefore] be avoided.”
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Serena.
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- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System Report.
- Hanekamp, Kwakman. Beyond Zero Tolerance: A New Approach to Food Safety and Residues of Pharmacologically Active Substances in Foodstuffs of Animal Origin.12 ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITY. 2004; 33-39.
- Mead G, Lammerding AM, Cox N, Doyle MP, Humbert F, Kulikovskiy A, Panin A, do Nascimento VP, Wierup; Salmonella On Raw Poultry Writing Committee. Scientific and technical factors affecting the setting of Salmonella criteria for raw poultry: a global perspective. M J Food Prot. 2010 Aug; 73(8):1566-90.
According to the latest published national Retail Meat Report, more than 80% of retail chicken breasts sold in the United States are contaminated with fecal matter—up from about 70% seven years before. 80% fecal contamination, and that’s completely legal.
But there are a few bugs for which there is zero tolerance. That does not make the meat industry happy. As the president of the Seafood Importers and Processors Association wrote in their article “Beyond zero tolerance: a new approach to food safety,” they propose a “risk-based approach instead of a precautionary approach.”
From a recent article about raw poultry, instead of zero tolerance, “Alternative terminology should be used…such as ‘acceptable’ or ‘tolerable’ risk..” Instead of zero tolerance policies on potentially deadly bacteria on chicken, they propose ALOP, an “appropriate level of protection,” an acceptable risk—a certain “number of cases per 100,000 population per year associated with a specific hazard in a [particular] food commodity.”
“Given the nature of the poultry industry, controls that are currently applied will not guarantee the absence of Salmonella from raw poultry.” It’s just the way we raise chickens. Therefore, using terms such as “zero tolerance or absence of a microbe in relation to raw poultry should [therefore] be avoided.”
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Serena.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System Report.
- Hanekamp, Kwakman. Beyond Zero Tolerance: A New Approach to Food Safety and Residues of Pharmacologically Active Substances in Foodstuffs of Animal Origin.12 ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITY. 2004; 33-39.
- Mead G, Lammerding AM, Cox N, Doyle MP, Humbert F, Kulikovskiy A, Panin A, do Nascimento VP, Wierup; Salmonella On Raw Poultry Writing Committee. Scientific and technical factors affecting the setting of Salmonella criteria for raw poultry: a global perspective. M J Food Prot. 2010 Aug; 73(8):1566-90.
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Title
Zero Tolerance to Acceptable Risk
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
Unfortunately there’s no zero tolerance policy on meat for our nation’s leading foodborne killer, Salmonella—see Fecal Bacteria Survey. For more surveys on how much of the American meat supply is contaminated with fecal matter and foodborne pathogens, see Fecal Contamination of Sushi; Fecal Residues on Chicken; U.S. Meat Supply Flying at Half Staph; and MRSA in U.S. Retail Meat. Salmonella-infected eggs also sicken more than 100,000 Americans every year; see Total Recall. The industry, however, continues to blame the victim; see Unsafe at Any Feed.
Also, be sure to check out my associated blog post: Why is it Legal to Sell Unsafe Meat?
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