Members of the Safe Food Coalition sent the following letter to Secretary Perdue urging swift action to protect consumers from poultry contaminated with Campylobacter. Campylobacter caused more illness than any other foodborne pathogen in 2017, and documented cases of illness rose by 10% compared to preceding years. Yet officials with USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service recently revealed that changes in the Campylobacter testing methodology have prevented the agency from detecting the vast majority of positive samples. In the letter, CFA and its allies ask Secretary Perdue to announce a firm deadline for the development of new tests and standards, the adoption of common sense interim measures to improve existing testing, and publication of which companies have excessive levels of contamination, similar to what the agency does for Salmonella.
