The role that chicken plays in foodborne illness outbreaks is nothing to cluck at.

Chicken was responsible for more illnesses associated with outbreaks of foodborne pathogens than any other food product, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In total, 12% of these illnesses were linked to chicken. After chicken, pork and seeded vegetables caused the most illnesses due to contamination by food borne pathogens, at 10% each.

While chicken led to more illnesses, other foods — fish and dairy — prompted more pathogen outbreaks. To produce its findings, the CDC analyzed 5,760 outbreaks from 2009 to 2015. These outbreaks were responsible for more than 100,000 illnesses — nearly 5,700 of which resulted in hospitalizations, and 145 of which led to deaths.

One particular multi-state outbreak involving salmonella in chicken, which occurred in 2013 and 2014, caused the second most hospitalizations (200 cases) of any single outbreak, exceeded only by a 2015 salmonella outbreak tied to cucumbers (204 hospitalizations).

Food category Number of illnesses Number of outbreaks Chicken 3,114 123 Pork 2,670 89 Seeded vegetables 2,572 44 Eggs 2,470 36 Fruits 2,420 78 Leafy and stem vegetables 1,972 81 Beef 1,934 106 Turkey 1,675 50 Dairy 1,639 136 Fish 1,353 222 Mollusks 846 105 Grains and beans 838 52 Sprouts 766 21 Herbs 476 7 Root and other underground vegetables 383 20 Nuts and seeds 245 11 Game 86 13 Crustaceans 74 12 Other poultry 71 6 Fungi 56 16 Other meat (sheep or goat) 50 6 Oils and sugars 18 4 Other aquatic animals 15 5 Other 807 38 Food reported, attributed to a single food category 26,550 1,281 Food reported, not attributed to a single food category 24,791 1,161

The poultry industry cries foul over the CDC report

The poultry industry has asked government regulators in recent years to allow chicken producers to ramp up the speed of production lines, arguing this will allow them to maintain competitiveness with international producers. Thus far, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has denied these petitions.

“Outside of maybe the nuclear energy industry, the U.S. meat and poultry industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the United States,” said Tom Super, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, a trade group that represents chicken farmers and producers. “To say otherwise is either disingenuous, or represents a gross misunderstanding of how the industry operates.”

Read more: Why you may want to avoid eating romaine lettuce

Because the CDC data are three years old, Super said it did not capture improvements made after the nationwide new poultry inspection system went into effect in 2014. Between 2017 and 2018, the percentage of whole chickens that tested positive for salmonella decreased from 5.42% to 4.9%, according to USDA data. At the same time, however, the share of salmonella-contaminated chicken parts rose from 14.16% to 14.83%.

Consumer advocates argue for more regulation of chicken

Consumer safety advocates argue that more—not less— regulation is needed. “Rather than focusing on schemes to boost industry profits—such as eliminating slaughterhouse line-speed limits—we should be talking about why the U.S. lags so far behind other countries on issues like addressing salmonella contamination in poultry, and what can be done to avoid some of these illnesses and the havoc they wreak on families,” said Thomas Gremillion, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America.

In the European Union, the number of illnesses caused by salmonella has decreased between 2008 and 2016, while in the U.S. it has remained higher.

One contributing factor could be how the federal government classifies salmonella. A loophole in food safety laws means that the bacteria isn’t considered an “adulterant” like certain strains of E.coli. When a substance is classified legally as an adulterant it means that food contaminated with it cannot be distributed — other adulterants include sawdust and plastic.

Also see: FDA links salmonella fears to common whey supplier, warns more recalls likely

While food producers are still under scrutiny from the USDA to stamp down on salmonella contamination, positive tests for the bacteria don’t automatically prompt a recall, according to Bill Marler, a Seattle-based lawyer who specializes in cases involving food safety. Instead, a recall only happens if an outbreak of illnesses is confirmed.

“Therefore, the USDA essentially allows companies to produce and sell salmonella- or campylobacter-tainted chicken,” Marler said.

Marler argued that the classification of one strain of E.coli (E.coli 0157) as an adulterant led to a significant decrease in the number of illnesses caused by the pathogen. The strain only earned that classification after an outbreak killed four children and landed 171 other people in the hospital in 1994.

But researchers at the University of Minnesota argued that classifying salmonella as an adulterant would not have the same significantly positive impact on public health, in part because current testing methods are not practical at supporting the level of inspection that would be needed to prevent salmonella-contaminated food from being distributed.

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