Why Salmonella Keeps Showing Up in Poultry & What the USDA Isn’t Doing About It

Issue Brief

Top poultry brands are routinely violating salmonella standards, and USDA is letting them do it. USDA has found that companies like Perdue, Foster Farms, Cargill, Butterball, and Costco’s supplier (Lincoln Premium Poultry) have persistently high rates of salmonella contamination in products destined for grocery stores across the country, but USDA does nothing to prevent these contaminated products from reaching consumers. At the same time, certain companies with high rates of salmonella contamination have also violated humane handling guidelines—standards for treating animals with care during slaughter, including proper stunning and minimizing stress and suffering—exacerbating the risk of contamination even further.

With little explanation, the Trump administration shelved a recent proposal to strengthen USDA authority to stop the sale of contaminated poultry products. Meanwhile, contaminated poultry remains the leading cause of foodborne-illness-related deaths in America, with the CDC estimating that salmonella alone infects an estimated 1.28 million people per year, a full one-quarter of whom are infected by poultry. Farm Forward analyzed USDA salmonella regulations, inspection records, and humane handling reports to investigate the role of regulatory failures, industry practices, and lack of enforcement in enabling dangerous levels of salmonella contamination in the poultry supply chain. Our research led to three key findings:

1. USDA permits dangerous levels of salmonella and lacks the authority to enforce standards. The agency sets lenient contamination standards and cannot suspend slaughter or processing plants that consistently exceed them, nor can it recall or stop the sale of contaminated products, leading to contaminated chicken routinely reaching grocery store shelves. Over the past five years, the USDA has issued no criminal penalties, civil penalties, administrative penalties, or product withholdings due to excessive salmonella levels despite its own testing revealing the chronic failure of many plants to meet standards.
2. Top poultry brands have repeatedly failed salmonella contamination standards. Companies like Perdue, Foster Farms, Cargill, Butterball, and Costco’s supplier (Lincoln Premium Poultry) have repeatedly received the USDA’s worst rating (Category 3) for excessive salmonella contamination in certain products across multiple years. Despite this consistent noncompliance, these companies have faced no meaningful consequences.
3. Inhumane treatment of birds fuels higher rates of salmonella contamination. Many of the same companies that fail salmonella standards have also failed standards for humane handling of animals. Industry practices such as overcrowding, poor handling, and high-speed slaughter increase stress and illness in birds, directly contributing to the spread of foodborne illness.

Despite known risks and widespread contamination, USDA continues to allow contaminated poultry into the marketplace, failing to protect both public health and animal welfare.