From 2004 through 2014, Oregon and Washington public health officials or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified nearly 1,000 infections linked to Foster Farms chicken in four separate outbreaks. About 300 of those cases occurred in Oregon and Washington. The overall toll was possibly much higher. The CDC estimates that for every confirmed salmonella infection, more than 29 go unreported. During that time, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service issued hundreds of citations at the company’s sprawling plant in Kelso, Washington. But the agency allowed the plant to operate even though people kept getting sick and did not notify the public.
OVERVIEW: Over a 10-year period, Oregon and Washington health officials traced salmonella outbreaks to Foster Farms chicken. They repeatedly alerted the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which failed to warn consumers and declined in two outbreaks to take significant enforcement action. Foster Farms spent millions on improvements and now reports one of the lowest rates of salmonella contamination in the industry. But many of the same practices and cultural hurdles that contributed to the way USDA handled public health concerns are still in place today.
FINDING 1: The USDA fears legal challenges. USDA officials remain so worried about being sued by companies that they’ve set a high bar for evidence, even rejecting samples of tainted chicken that state health agencies believed would help clinch their case.
FINDING 2: The USDA rarely requests recalls. All USDA recalls are voluntary, but the agency can ask a company to pull tainted food. The USDA only did that once with Foster Farms, even though people kept getting sick, and Oregon health officials repeatedly found the outbreak strain in random retail samples of the company’s chicken from 2004 through 2012.
FINDING 3: The USDA tests few birds for salmonella. The USDA just started to test one chicken carcass a week at poultry plants. Outside an investigation, that means that only 52 birds a year are tested at plants that process tens of thousands of carcasses a day.
FINDING 4: The USDA bowed to corporate pressure. Union records show the agency transferred an inspector after Foster Farms managers complained he wrote too many citations. And after strong pushback from Foster Farms, the USDA retracted a reference in a public document that unequivocally linked the company to illnesses in 2004.