New study finds no association between higher line speeds and Salmonella-positive carcasses
The US National Chicken Council is highlighting a new study that finds no association between higher poultry processing line speeds and increased Salmonella outbreaks.
A new study that was pre-published on October 20 in the journal, Poultry Science analysed data collected from July 2018 through July 2019 from 97 broiler slaughter establishments to evaluate the relationship, if any, between slaughter line speeds across establishments operating under the same inspection system and frequencies of positive Salmonella samples. This is the first study to provide recent survey data assessing line speed and Salmonella contamination rates on chicken carcasses. The research concluded that the presence of Salmonella or other indicators of process control, such as non-compliance records for regulations associated with process control and food safety, are not significantly increased in establishments with higher line speeds (eg, above 140 birds per minute) compared to establishments with lower line speeds when establishments are operating under the conditions present in this study. Read more