Denmark’s amazing chicken fight with salmonella

WORKING SAFELY BY STEVE SAYER

(The views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of the author.)

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Pictured below is a retail package containing raw skinless/boneless chicken that was recently purchased in Denmark (DK) Europe.

The labeling on the package is claiming to Danish consumers (where there’s an orange drawing of a chicken within a round circle): “Dansk Salmonelllafri Kylling,” when translated means - “Danish salmonella-free chicken.”

The package labeling also includes:

• In black font with a green background, a declaration that the chicken can have up to 9 percent water retention 
• Packaging/expiration dates 
• Origin of chicken (DK) 
• Location of harvesting (DK) 
• Cooking suggestions 

The DK packer is Rose Packing that claims their chicken is “salmonella free” on their website.

How would such a labeling declaration that claims the raw chicken one is purchasing is “salmonella free” be received in the states?

Do DK’s poultry hatcheries/farmers/processors and academia know something regarding the lowering of salmonella that the U.S. poultry industry and USDA don’t know?

No.

Perhaps the labeling laws in DK and other European Union (EU) countries has dissimilar labeling requirements?

Maybe.

Having “salmonella free” chicken on a mass scale isn’t possible – or if it’s close, at what price?

For contextual comparisons, DK’s geographic size compares to the state of Maryland with a population boarding 5.5 million people.

DK harvests 100 million chickens a year compared to the states’ 8.5 billion chickens.

The long and winding road that the Danes labored to lowering salmonella within their hatcheries, layer hens, broiler chickens and eggs are impressive.

Human salmonellosis is a common cause of food-borne diseases in the industrialized world. Selected zoonotic infections are often transmitted from healthy carrier animals to humans via contaminated foods. The reservoir of zoonotic salmonella is food animals with the main sources of infections from raw meat and eggs.

From the 1950s through the 1970s, DK averaged 450 confirmed illnesses involving poultry salmonella annually. However from 1977, salmonella cases began increasing exponentially as the numbers reached 3,500 cases in 1988.

Danish investigations prior to and including the spike of 1988 involving salmonellosis in poultry was certainly proof of salmonella in their broilers. This dramatic increase of DK illnesses began a domino effect resulting with the emergence in 1996 of a DK National Salmonella Control Program (NSCP).

In 1988, Danish salmonella infected broiler flocks was at >65 percent. However, by the year 2000 that number was reduced to <5 percent. DNCP’s initial goal was attaining <5 percent of broiler flocks being affected with salmonella.

In 1993, a major Danish retailer (COOP-DK) stopped the marketing of domestic broiler chickens that exceeded the <5 percent target. Danish chicken that couldn’t meet <5 percent resulted with producers suffering severe losses as they were forced to export their chickens to inferior priced markets.

With the initial program being successful, the NSCP lowered their initial goal from <5 percent to a complete eradication, or zero tolerance of salmonella involving broiler production. The revised program centered on a pyramid that started prudently at the hatcher/broiler breeding level that trickled downstream to Danish dinner plates.

Danish farmers were given incentives (the DK government and the EU initially compensated owner’s of destroyed breeding stock for their losses) for salmonella free birds, which allowed them to label their processed birds as “salmonella free.”

Back in the states, salmonella still causes more hospitalizations/deaths than any other foodborne illness. Salmonella causes a million cases of food poisoning annually and over the last decade that number has increased by 44 percent.

In 2012, the CDC documented 600 individuals infected across 29 states with a virulent strain of salmonella. Investigations pointed to Foster Farms, the sixth largest chicken producer in the U.S. as the likely source. Upon USDA investigation, they found 25% of the chicken sampled was contaminated with the outbreak strain of salmonella.

A number of DK pre-harvesting controls jointly truncated salmonella by:

• Public-private partnerships
• Intensive flock-level testing involving breeding/rearing flocks and hatcheries by a combination of serologic/bacteriologic testing
• Removal of ALL organic materials
• Robust cleaning and disinfection of the poultry farms
• Major re-modeling/designs of farm interiors with special attention to flooring materials with sanitation in mind
• Advanced bio-security of workers/visitors and RTE themed 3-stage vestibule prior to entering interior areas equipped with a positve air flow
• Science-based feed
• Robust humane handling practices 
• Vigorous interior/exterior pest controls and controls of exterior flora
• An empty resting period of 10–14 days between flocks 

In addition, DK banned all vaccines/antibiotics including #chlorine based chemical (# still used in USA in 2022) washes at harvesting.

Today the cost of chicken in DK is twice as it is in the states.

However since 2011, there haven’t been any reports of Danes getting sick / dying from consuming DK domesticated chicken, though Danish eggs have caused roughly a dozen illnesses.

How does this reflect upon the U.S. poultry industry and USDA?

Are current USDA regulations involving raw poultry HACCP systems and other applicable regulations/programs including their burgeoning "Strategic Plan for 2017-2021" selectively flawed?

I say yes, by considering nearly identical performances / results of the other Scandinavian countries: especially Sweden's.

11/25/2016 Meatingplace.com Revised 07/09/2022

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