Food safety attorney Bill Marler is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) to ban 31 antibiotic-resistant Salmonella strains from meat and poultry products.  

Marler’s list, dubbed “Salmonella Outbreak Serotypes”, includes the following outbreak serotypes to be considered adulterants in meat and poultry products:

Salmonella Agona, Anatum, Berta, Blockely, Braenderup, Derby, Dublin, Enteritidis, Hadar, Heidelberg, I 4,[5],12:i:-, Infantis, Javiana, Litchfield, Mbandaka, Mississippi, Montevideo, Muenchen, Newport, Oranienburg, Panama, Poona, Reading, Saintpaul, Sandiego, Schwarzengrund, Senftenberg, Stanley, Thompson, Typhi, and Typhimurium.

A similar petition brought forth by the Center for Science in the Public Interest in 2014 asked USDA FSIS to ban four antibiotic-resistant Salmonella strains, but that petition was revoked without explanation just 60 days later.

Marler’s petition was filed in conjunction with Rick Schiller, Steven Romes, the Porter Family, Food & Water Watch, Consumer Federation of America, and Consumer Reports.

Marler’s 62-page petition has yet to receive a response from USDA FSIS nor the meat industry itself.

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