April 25, 2025 – Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) withdrew a rule proposed under former President Biden that would have allowed the agency, for the first time, to stop chicken contaminated with salmonella from reaching consumers.
Currently, the USDA tests for salmonella, alerts consumers to food safety concerns, and issues voluntary recalls, but it can’t pull products off the shelves. Food safety watchdog groups had called the agency’s move to change that reality “one of the greatest advances in food safety in a generation.” But Biden’s USDA didn’t finalize the rule, making it easy for the incoming administration to scrap it.
Those same groups slammed the decision, saying that more Americans will get sick as a result. Salmonella is responsible for more than a million infections and 400 deaths in the U.S. annually.
“The administration is sending the message that consumers will be on their own when it comes to protecting their families from foodborne illness,” Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, said in a statement.
That message is more pronounced, Ronholm said, because many other deregulatory actions within the Trump administration could impact food safety. Those include staff and budget cuts, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision to delay a rule to improve traceability in supply chains, the elimination of food safety advisory committees, and faster line speeds permitted in meatpacking plants.
The USDA did not respond to a request for comment.
The National Chicken Council, which represents the country’s largest poultry companies, stated they appreciated the decision and looked forward to working with the USDA on an approach that is “based on sound science, is implementable, and will have a meaningful and measured impact on public health.”
Earlier this week, election records revealed that JBS-owned chicken company Pilgrim’s Pride, a member of the National Chicken Council, donated $5 million to Trump’s inauguration. (Link to this post.)
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