Around 25 percent of cut-up chicken meat and about 50
percent of all ground chicken sold in stores is contaminated with salmonella,
according to the USDA.
It’s a surprisingly high number, and it was a surprise to the USDA’s food safety officials, too, when they realized this about a year ago. Because up to that point, their efforts had been focused on whole chickens, rather than the cut-up parts. …… About a year ago, during an outbreak of salmonella poisoning that was traced to Foster Farms, in California, the USDA’s scientists started systematically testing chicken parts, too.
As a result of the recent findings, the USDA has proposed a new set of poultry guidelines,
including a 15 percent limit on contaminated chicken parts. The USDA estimates
that 60 percent of chicken slaughterhouses currently exceed this percentage.
Still, 15 percent sounds like an awful lot to us.
Salmonella causes more hospitalizations and deaths than any
other foodborne illness, sickening more than a million people a year. In fact,
the salmonella infection rate in people has risen 44 percent in just the last
decade.
As undercover investigations
by Mercy For Animals have shown time and again, factory farms are not only breeding
grounds for unconscionable animal abuse, but also for deadly diseases.
The best way to safeguard your own health and
reduce the needless suffering of animals is to transition to a humane vegan
diet. For more information, check out ChooseVeg.com.