salmonella

Today is World Food Safety Day, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has launched a sweeping new initiative known as the Salmonella Grand Challenge. The project brings together an elite group of ARS, university and food industry scientists from different specialties to fight Salmonella, a foodborne pathogen that sickens over a million Americans each year, sometimes fatally. The challenge complements the work being done by the Food Safety and Inspection Service to develop a more effective strategy to reduce human Salmonella illness linked to poultry.

When the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a new effort to reduce Salmonella in poultry, we led with the numbers. The number of illnesses due to Salmonella has not decreased over the last two decades. Year after year, people have become ill with Salmonella infections at roughly the same rate. Each case of foodborne illness represents someone whose life was impacted. And among the most vulnerable — children, the elderly, and those with underlying health issues — those impacts can be serious, leading to physical, emotional, and financial harm. These are the people who are always top of mind for me and who motivate me to come to work each day.