Washington - A chemical spray designed to help stop the spread of salmonella in chickens is being shipped for the first time to US customers, although some industry experts doubt the method really works.
PREEMPT, a chemical used by Japanese chicken producers for two years, was unveiled by Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman in March with much fanfare after the Food and Drug Administration approved its use.
However, officials with the $27.5 billion US chicken industry said the department's announcement was made before it was known if PREEMPT will work, and may have created a false sense of hope for consumers amid a deluge of food recalls.
John DeLoach, president of MS Bioscience, the company that developed PREEMPT with the Agriculture Department and bought the license to market the product, said the chemical works and has been successful in Japan in reducing salmonella.
“Every field test I've run, I don't find any salmonella,” he said. “I don't have enough production to meet the demand.”
However, he too said the government may have gone too far. Although the spray is a good tool, farmers should also fully sanitize chicken houses and use other cleaning methods to reduce the risk of salmonella entering the bird, DeLoach said.
“I think he (Glickman) overstated it,” DeLoach said. “He came across like this is the only thing you need to do. That is the furthest from the truth. It is one component of what you need to do.”
At a news conference in March, Glickman called PREEMPT a “milestone for food safety,” but also added that proper processing and safe in-kitchen preparation remain essential.
A department spokesman said the secretary repeatedly had said there was never one answer to fighting food-borne illnesses.
“It is the first product to be certified by the FDA to be safe and effective,” the spokesman said. “This is clearly a step that we believe would be helpful.”
Five officials from the top 10 US poultry producing companies said they were conducting PREEMPT tests but did not yet plan to add the treatment to their daily procedures. The officials represent companies that produce almost half of all US chicken.
Ed Nicholson, spokesman for Tyson Foods said it was a potential tool, one of many available in the war against pathogens. "Until further research is done in a practical environment," Nicholson said, "we can't say that it is a silver bullet."
Between 2 million and 4 million cases of salmonella poisoning are estimated to occur each year in the United States, mostly from undercooked poultry, meat and eggs. Chicken processors already use chlorine rinses, high-pressure washes and freezers to kill bacteria.
Last year, about 16 % of chicken carcasses tested positive for salmonella, according to USDA figures.
The PREEMPT mist -- a mixture of 29 bacteria naturally found in the intestines of healthy chickens -- is sprayed on new birds as they ride a conveyor belt at the hatchery. The chicks preen themselves and “good” bacteria fill up the intestinal walls to prevent salmonella from taking hold.
Such a process of using good bacteria is known as competitive exclusion, a method that dates back to the 1950s and has been used before without success, scientists said.
According to Dr. Lester Crawford, director of Georgetown University's Center for Food and Nutrition Policy and former head of the Agriculture Department's food safety division, competitive exclusion has not had a good track record.
Crawford said he had reviewed the department research on PREEMPT and was not convinced it was any better than other competitive exclusion products tried before. “This is not something that you would put out and would not have to worry about salmonella ever again,” he said. “It isn't going to work long.”
Officials at Perdue said they were also skeptical. And the expense -- roughly a penny per pound -- must be justified before the product is widely adopted.
But DeLoach said he understands the industry's hesitancy since it has been duped before by similar products. But this time, he says, the cost is worth it.
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