In an article published on AgriPulse on October 28, 2025, spokesperson for the National Chicken Council, Tom Super, responded to Farm Forward’s latest research report on salmonella contamination in the poultry industry, saying that producers “have worked to drive Salmonella levels to all-time lows, meeting or exceeding performance standards set by USDA, who has the authority to pull inspection at any establishment that is not producing safe, wholesome and properly labeled products.”
Although the prevalence of salmonella in poultry products has decreased, the number of salmonella outbreaks and outbreak-related illnesses attributed to chicken has not, in fact, declined. Poultry still sickens at least 320,000 people per year, although even this statistic is likely grossly underestimated; the CDC estimates that 29 of every 30 cases of salmonella go unreported. Even one person getting seriously ill or dying from salmonella is too many, let alone thousands. Americans should not have to accept food that is chronically contaminated so that the poultry industry can continue to profit from its irresponsible production practices.
The reality is that many slaughter and processing plants from major poultry brands are failing USDA’s performance standards repeatedly and are still allowed to sell contaminated products to consumers. Further, Super’s reference to producers working to meet or exceed performance standards belies the extremely high rates of contamination USDA allows in raw poultry products (up to 25 percent of certain poultry product types can be contaminated and meet the standard).
It is correct that USDA can pull inspectors from poultry plants, but the agency is not doing that. Super misleads readers into thinking that USDA protects consumers from unsafe products but it does not, in fact, have the authority to stop the production of contaminated products or order recalls of those that make it to grocery stores. A proposed rule that would have changed this and granted the agency the authority to prevent contaminated poultry from entering the food supply was withdrawn by the current administration, ensuring that USDA will continue to allow contaminated chicken and turkey to reach grocery stores around the country.
It’s telling that Super did not say that Farm Forward’s data or analysis were wrong; he sidestepped the fundamental flaws in both industry practices and in USDA oversight and regulation. At the end of the day, salmonella-contaminated poultry continues to sicken hundreds of thousands of consumers and the industry and government are doing nothing meaningful to prevent this public health crisis.
Read Farm Forward’s investigative report.