Now, 14 months later, it has trimmed the incidence of
salmonella in its chicken products from 25 to less two per cent.
It has invested $75 million in food safety and continues to
search for ways to improve.
One of the things it did is routine for Canadian chicken
farmers – a total removal of chicken litter from 112 chicken barns on two farms
it operates in California.
It also washed and disinfected the barns and equipment,
again a practice that is routine in Canada at the end of each six-week quota
period. Many U.S. chicken farmers maintain litter in barns for several flocks.
But Foster Farms also fumigated the barns, a step beyond
normal Canadian practice.
The on-farm measures reduced the incidence of salmonella in
birds arriving at the company’s processing plants from 75 per cent in Msrch, 2014,
to less than 20 per cent this year.
The company set a target of five per cent, compared with an
industry-wide average of 25 per cent, for raw processed chicken and chicken
parts. It got that down to as low as 1.7 per cent, exceeding its goal.
That required major improvements in plant sanitation, not
only for after-shift cleanups, but also during processing.
The company is taking far more samples now, and is getting
test results back within an hour or two so responses are much quicker than they
used to be.
At the farms, the company collected and tested 8,000 samples
from walls, ceilings, water lines and litter. It also hired specialists to
analyze the results.
One drawback remains: the company doesn’t know which of the
many changes it has instituted is responsible for the dramatic reduction in
salmonellad and therefore doesn’t know which are the most cost effective.
The story of Foster Farms response to salmonella is told in
the current issue of Meatingplace Magazine.
