04.dec.06
Reuters
Christopher Doering
WASHINGTON - Consumer Reports was cited as reporting Monday that 83 percent of chicken sold in U.S. grocery stores may contain bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses, 34 percentage points higher than the rate it found three years ago.
Critics, however, said the study by suffered from flaws that included an unreliably small number of samples. A U.S. Agriculture Department spokesman called the report "junk science."
Consumer Reports said tests on 525 chickens -- including samples from leading brands Perdue, Pilgrim's Pride Inc. and Tyson Foods Inc. -- showed most of the poultry had campylobacter or salmonella, two of the leading causes of food-borne diseases. A test conducted in 2003 showed 49 percent of the birds had at least one of the bacteria.
Jean Halloran, a policy director for Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports, was quoted as saying, "We think it's really startling. It's a very significant deterioration in food safety."
No major U.S. chicken brand fared better in the study than the others, but Tyson had the lowest salmonella level and the highest rate of campylobacter. Similarly, Perdue had the fewest samples with campylobacter, but the most cases of salmonella.
Steven Cohen, a spokesman with the U.S. Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service, was cited as saying the study was riddled with flaws such as a small sample size and uncertainty over the report's methodology, and that it also failed to mention what type of salmonella was found, noting that one common strain, Salmonella Kentucky, doesn't make people ill, stating, "There is virtually nothing or any conclusion that anyone could draw from 500 samples. They're passing along junk science and calling it an investigation."
The study said the decline in chicken safety was tied largely to a surge in the campylobacter bacteria, which can be carried by birds without them becoming ill, but causes diarrhea in people.
ocratic Reps. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut, and Henry Waxman, California, were quoted as saying, "The evidence of our faltering food safety system continues to mount while the administration refuses to acknowledge the problem, believing that adequate safeguards are in place."s
National Chicken Council spokesman Richard Lobb was cited as saying the report contained nothing new and "greatly exaggerated" the rate of bacteria in raw chicken, adding, "Consumer Reports says what every cook already knows, that fresh poultry may carry naturally occurring bacteria and should be properly handled and cooked."