It is well known that Salmonella is one of the leading causes of foodborne illness in the United States. After a series of salmonellosis outbreaks linked to ground beef that occurred annually from 2011 to 2013, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) sought to reduce the number of FSIS-attributable salmonellosis cases. Accordingly, FSIS released a two-year Salmonella action plan that contained 10 objectives or activities, including: “Explore the contribution of lymph nodes to Salmonella contamination” and “Pre-harvest related activities.”
Following the initial release of this comprehensive plan to address Salmonella in meat and poultry products, annual action plan updates were released in 2015 and 2016. FSIS determined both objectives mentioned above have been fully completed. A number of items resulting from the completion of these objectives directly affect the meat and poultry industries. With regard to lymph nodes (LNs), the most notable considerations are for: beef and pork slaughter modernization; increased sampling of head and cheek meat, and possible targeting of LNs; and the planned release of a guidance document, Compliance Guidelines for Minimizing the Risk of STEC and Salmonella in Beef (including Veal) Slaughter Operations, which has since been released. Through the compliance guideline, FSIS issued a number of additional recommendations to lessen the impact of Salmonella in LNs. These include the removal of major peripheral LNs from carcasses, treating heads following LN incision by inspection personnel and diverting head and cheek meat to a full-lethality treatment. The completion of the pre-harvest objective was achieved by updating an existing draft guidance document to include potential pre-harvest intervention strategies to reduce Salmonella contamination that may translate to post-harvest products. The updated guideline, however, addresses poultry, not red-meat species, leaving great opportunity for researchers to continue efforts to identify and validate pre-harvest interventions and best practices for reduction of Salmonella prevalence in hogs and cattle.