Some of the most recognizable chicken and poultry brands sell products from slaughter and processing plants that fail USDA’s salmonella standards, allowing large volumes of contaminated meat to enter the food supply. Certain companies have especially bad track records. Farm Forward found that, in both 2023 and 2024, the following top companies had 100 percent of their plants fail USDA standards:
- Perdue turkey (sells under the Perdue and Harvestland brands)
- Lincoln Premium Poultry (Costco-owned chicken company)
- Pitman Farms chicken (sells under Mary’s, Fulton Valley, Sweetwater Creek, Shelton’s)
- Foster Poultry Farms (turkey)
Additionally, Butterball turkey, Cargill turkey, and Foster Farms chicken had 50 percent of their plants fail in both 2023 and 2024.
How can such persistent salmonella contamination plague top poultry producers despite government standards, and why isn’t the public aware of it?
Let’s look at how USDA’s salmonella inspections work:
- USDA sets “performance standards” with “maximum allowable percentages” of salmonella contamination for each slaughter and processing plant (also called establishments). These allowable percentages of salmonella are shockingly high. For instance, an establishment meets the USDA standard if testing finds that up to 25 percent of ground or minced chicken is contaminated with salmonella and over 15 percent of chicken parts (i.e., breasts, drumsticks, thighs, wings) are contaminated.
- Category ratings are attached to a plant’s level of salmonella contamination. Category 3 is the worst; plants in this category fail the salmonella standard by having levels of contamination that exceed the standard (i.e., maximum allowable percentage). Category 2 plants meet the standard and Category 1 is reserved for plants with the least contamination. Even Category 1, however, allows for significant contamination (e.g., more than 1 in 10 samples of ground and minced chicken are allowed to test positive).
- Plants are inspected by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and are assigned a category rating for each type of product. These ratings are then posted publicly on the FSIS website.
Despite this process of standards and inspections, if a plant fails the standard, the company faces no punitive or enforcement actions, nor are they required to address salmonella contamination in their slaughter or processing supply chain. USDA has no authority to enforce the standards it sets; it cannot shut down a highly contaminated plant, stop contaminated products from entering the food supply, or order recalls.
In the absence of federal regulation and protection of the public, consumers have limited power to avoid buying contaminated poultry. The safest option, of course, is to forego purchasing poultry altogether. Another option is to investigate which companies and specific plants received the absolute worst rating, and steer clear of purchasing from those brands.
How to check if the poultry products you’re buying came from companies that failed USDA’s salmonella inspections:
- Identify the number for the establishment (plant) that produced the package of chicken or turkey at your local grocery store. Each package of poultry is required to display the identifier for the source establishment, beginning with the prefix “P-” and followed by a number. This establishment number can appear in several places on the product. Look first at the USDA seal of inspection on the packaging. If the establishment number is not there, the seal should reference where the number can be found (e.g., on a metal clip directly attached to products such as sausage, or on metal trays within the packaging).
- Locate the establishment number in USDA’s salmonella testing database. Visit USDA FSIS’s website, “Salmonella Verification Testing Program Monthly Posting.” Navigate to the “Most Recent Posting” date range. Open either the Excel or PDF document, “Dataset_EstablishmentCategories_[Unique Number].” Search for the establishment number you found on the product packaging, eliminating the hyphen after “P” (e.g., PXXX, not P-XXX). Note: to see the past salmonella inspection records for a particular company or establishment, navigate to “Previous Postings” and select the relevant date range.
- Check the inspection information for the particular establishment in question. In the dataset, the establishment number will correspond with the name of the company, location of the plant, and specific types of products tested (e.g., “young chicken carcasses” for whole chicken), followed by the overall category rating for that particular type of product at that specific plant.
This process may seem complicated and time-consuming, and that’s because it is. USDA does not make it easy for the public to find salmonella inspection reports. The likelihood of a consumer checking the establishment number every time they shop for poultry products is exceedingly low.
However, accessing this information is one of the few exercises of power consumers have in reducing their risk of buying contaminated products. If you don’t have the time or ability to check each package in real time at the grocery store, you may take some time at home reviewing the recent inspection reports and identifying which companies consistently rate as Category 3. Some of the companies listed will be recognizable retail brands, like Butterball or Foster Farms. Other company names may be less familiar, but sell poultry under recognizable brand names, like Perdue’s consumer-facing chicken brand, Draper Valley. You may, then, need to do some additional research to find out which brands at the grocery stores are owned by which companies.
At a systemic level, consumers can demand that poultry companies clean up their act and the federal government institute enforceable standards for salmonella contamination to protect the public from this dangerous pathogen. Follow Farm Forward’s continuing work on salmonella regulation to stay informed and get involved in holding USDA and the poultry industry accountable.