Risk-Based Evaluation Of The Public Health Impact Of Food Safety Interventions For The Control Of Salmonella Spp. In The Chicken Meat Production Chain

Abstract

The aim of this work was to develop a risk-based decision analysis framework of farm to table food safety interventions for the control of Salmonella spp. in the chicken meat production chain, using chicken breasts and ground chicken as the model food systems. This framework should assist chicken producers, processors and policy makers when evaluating and selecting the most cost-effective and feasible pre-harvest and post-harvest interventions to control Salmonella spp. The approach included defining the risk factors for Salmonella spp. contamination in the chicken meat production chain, identifying existing and proposed pre- and post-harvest interventions for controlling Salmonella spp., prioritizing pre- and post-harvest interventions based on the reduction of the overall public health risk, developing a quantitative risk assessment to predict the number of Salmonella cases in the US population per year and the impact of individual and combined intervention strategies in reducing the Salmonella public health burden, and finally, applying cost-benefit analysis to identify the most cost-effective measures. The results suggest that the use of peroxyacetic acid as a single intervention applied at post-chill is the most cost-effective intervention to both control Salmonella spp. and meet regulatory performance standards in chicken meat production. It also became evident that there is a need to update the body of published literature to better understand the impact of all stages of the chicken meat production chain, from pre- and post-harvest through consumer handling and cooking, particularly on levels of Salmonella spp.