According to  the plan, FSIS intends to, among other things, (1) conduct food safety  assessments at plants that produce ground and mechanically separated  poultry products by the end of fiscal year 2014; (2) consider modifying  the way it publishes the category status of poultry plants, such as by  publishing on its website the names of plants in Category 1 and Category  2, in addition to those in Category 3, by the end of fiscal year 2014; (3)  develop new enforcement strategies that take into account plants’  compliance history and Salmonella category under the standards, among  other things, which, according to the plan, will take over a year to  accomplish; and (4) host a meeting with APHIS and other stakeholders to  focus on poultry farm practices that could help decrease Salmonella  contamination on FSIS-regulated poultry products and use the  information gathered to inform best practice guidelines, requiring the  completion of additional actions prior to the meeting. According to FSIS’s final rule, modernizing poultry  slaughter inspections will play a role in reducing Salmonella and other  poultry pathogen contamination. In Assessing Its Actions, USDA Does Not Have Measures for All Poultry Pathogen Standards to Track Progress in Protecting Human Health and Relies on Data with Limitations

To help assess the effects of the agency’s actions on the incidence of  human illnesses from Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination in  poultry products, FSIS has developed performance measures and  conducted research, but these efforts fall short in two ways: (1) the  agency did not establish performance measures for certain commonly  consumed poultry products or Campylobacter and (2) the agency has  relied on data with limitations that affect their usefulness. FSIS’s Salmonella  measure indicates whether agency actions to ensure compliance with the  applicable standard are helping the agency meet its goal. The agency has not  established performance measures even though the standards for young  turkey carcasses have been in place since 2005, with a revision in 2011,  and the standards for ground chicken and ground turkey have been in  place for more than a decade. In July 2014, FSIS officials told us these  plants are no longer in Category 3 based on recent testing. However,  without performance measures and targets for compliance with standards  for these pathogens in commonly consumed poultry products, FSIS  cannot quantitatively gauge its progress in assessing the effects of its  actions related to these standards toward meeting the agency’s goal of  maximizing domestic compliance with food safety policies and, ultimately,  protecting public health. contamination of poultry products. As a part  of this approach, USDA’s FSIS has taken several actions to reduce  Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination in poultry products to  protect human health, including tightening existing standards for  Salmonella contamination in young chicken and turkey carcasses, as well  as developing a Salmonella Action Plan. Similarly, it has not developed  performance measures for Campylobacter contamination in young  chicken and turkey carcasses, or for Salmonella contamination in turkey  carcasses. In the absence of performance measures and associated targets for  these pathogens in commonly consumed poultry products, FSIS cannot  quantitatively assess the effects of its actions related to these standards  in meeting the agency’s goal of maximizing domestic compliance with  food safety policies and, ultimately, protecting public health. In addition, USDA faces several challenges that could hinder its ability to  reduce contamination in poultry products. To help overcome this challenge, the  agency has developed guidelines on practices for controlling Salmonella  and Campylobacter on farms, but the guidelines do not include  information on the effectiveness for each practice, as recommended by  an internal agency committee. Without  providing this information in future revisions of the guidelines, USDA is  not fully informing industry of the potential benefits of adopting these  practices and encouraging implementation of such practices. In future revisions of the compliance guidelines on controlling  Salmonella and Campylobacter, FSIS should ensure the inclusion of  information on the effectiveness of each recommended farm practice  to reduce these pathogens in live poultry. Our  objectives for this report were to: (1) describe actions USDA has taken  since 2006 to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination in  poultry products that it regulates; (2) evaluate USDA’s efforts to assess  the effects of these actions on the incidence of human illnesses from  Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry products; and (3) determine  what challenges, if any, USDA faces in reducing these pathogens in  poultry products. We also interviewed  officials from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service  (APHIS),USDA. FSIS, and CDC to identify and describe any challenges facing  We conducted a two-stage interview process with industry, consumer,  and government employee stakeholder groups. These outbreaks are not generalizeable to all outbreaks  from Salmonella and Campylobacter contaminated poultry products. We limited the scope of our review to four of the six  most recent Salmonella outbreaks that had the highest number of  confirmed illnesses that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and  Inspection Service (FSIS) investigated since 2009.
Why GAO Did This Study

USDA is responsible for ensuring the safety of poultry products. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report the U.S. food supply is one of the safest in the world, yet estimate that Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination in food causes more than 2 million human illnesses per year. Poultry products contaminated with pathogens cause more deaths than any other commodity. GAO was asked to examine USDA's approach to reduce these pathogens in poultry products.
GAO's objectives were to (1) describe actions USDA has taken since 2006 to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination in poultry products, (2) evaluate USDA's efforts to assess the effects of these actions on the incidence of human illnesses from Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry products, and (3) determine challenges USDA faces in reducing these pathogens in poultry products. GAO reviewed relevant regulations and documents and interviewed officials from USDA and CDC, as well as 11 industry, consumer, and government employee stakeholder groups selected based on knowledge of USDA's poultry slaughter inspections and food safety.

What GAO Found

Since 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has taken a number of actions to reduce contamination from Salmonella and Campylobacter (disease-causing organisms, i.e., pathogens) in poultry (chicken and turkey) products. USDA's actions to reduce these pathogens include, for example, tightening existing standards limiting the allowable amount of Salmonella contamination in young poultry carcasses, implementing the first standards limiting Campylobacter contamination in young poultry carcasses in 2011, and developing an action plan detailing a priority list of actions, such as developing new enforcement strategies, to reduce Salmonella . More recently, in August 2014, USDA published its final rule to modernize poultry slaughter inspections, which according to the agency, will play a role in reducing Salmonella and other poultry pathogen contamination by allowing better use of agency resources, among other things.
To help assess the effects of these actions on the incidence of human illness from Salmonella and Campylobacter , USDA conducted research on the effects of agency actions to reduce these pathogens and developed performance measures for certain poultry products to help monitor progress toward agency goals. For example, USDA developed a measure to indicate whether agency actions to ensure compliance with the standard for Salmonella contamination in young chicken carcasses are helping the agency achieve its goal of maximizing domestic compliance with food safety policies. However, USDA has not developed measures for Salmonella contamination in ground poultry or young turkey carcasses, even though standards for such contamination have been in place since 1996 and 2005, respectively, or for Campylobacter contamination in young poultry carcasses. USDA believes it is not appropriate to establish measures for ground poultry until the agency has revised standards, or for Campylobacte r contamination until the agency has obtained more information on compliance levels—both of which the agency expects to do by the end of 2014. USDA officials stated that they will review the agency's strategic plan to determine what performance measures, if any, are needed. USDA does not believe a measure for young turkey carcasses is needed since historically data have shown that plants are meeting the standard but, in calendar year 2013, two plants did not meet it; USDA officials told GAO that these plants are no longer noncompliant. Without performance measures for these standards, USDA is not publicly reporting performance information and cannot assess the effects of its actions related to these standards in meeting the goal of maximizing domestic compliance with food safety policies and, ultimately, protecting public health.
GAO identified several challenges—based, in part, on the views of 11 stakeholder groups—that could hinder USDA's ability to reduce contamination in poultry products. For example, contamination of poultry products can be affected by practices on poultry farms. To help overcome this challenge, the agency developed guidelines in 2010 on practices for controlling Salmonella and Campylobacter on farms, but the guidelines did not include information on the effectiveness of each of these practices, consistent with a recommendation from an agency advisory committee. USDA did not confirm that it plans to include this information in future guidelines. Without providing this information in future guidelines, USDA is not fully informing the poultry industry of the potential benefits of adopting these practices and encouraging their implementation.

What GAO Recommends

Salmonella and Campylobacter on farms include information on the effectiveness of each practice. USDA agreed with GAO's recommendations.