January 17, 2025 1 min read

Consumer Federation of America asks USDA to Protect Consumers from Foodborne Illness Caused by Multi-Billion Dollar Poultry Breeder Duopoly

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CFA submitted the following comments on USDA’s proposed rule that would prohibit the sale of poultry products contaminated with high levels of dangerous Salmonella serotypes. The letter adds to joint comments filed jointly by CFA and other members of the Safe Food Coalition. CFA’s comments urge USDA to reconsider its approach to on-farm, “pre-harvest” interventions to control Salmonella, and specifically to adopt supplier verification controls for Salmonella and to test live birds at receiving for “high virulence” serotypes to validate preharvest controls. Doing so would address a key market failure, whereby monopoly conditions are allowed to create shortages of poultry breeding stock free of dangerous Salmonella. The poultry breeding stock produced by just two companies, Aviagen and Cobb-Vantress, the latter a wholly owned subsidiary of Tyson Foods, account for virtually all poultry consumed in the United States. Because poultry transmit Salmonella vertically from parent to offspring, contamination of breeding stock with dangerous variants of the bacteria can create illness risk for millions of consumers.

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