GAO: USDA Must Act, Drive Down Dangerously High Poultry Pathogen Rates

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture must set strict pathogen limits for poultry products with the highest contamination rates and find ways to measure a poultry plant’s success with these new standards, according to a government report released Thursday.

The key problem is that ground poultry products and chicken parts – breasts, wings and drumsticks — have pathogen rates in the double digits, partly because of the cutting and grinding processes that expose the meat to more bacteria.

The Government Accountability Office report noted that after the USDA set a standard of 7.5 percent for salmonella on whole chicken carcasses, contamination rates fell to the single digits. A pathogen standard establishes the level of a bacteria that can be found on a poultry product before it is declared unfit for commerce."

Kimberly Kindy reports for the Washington Post October 20, 2014.