Apparently, due to an antibiotic resistant strain of salmonella in chickens {Salmonella Heidelberg}, the USDA may shutdown 3 of 4 Foster Farms Chicken operations. In an NPR article I read, Foster Farms must get their plan of attack to the USDA by today.
According to the article, the strain of salmonella is likely antibiotic resistant due to the antibiotics given to birds, for the most part to encourage growth. Foster Farms does not use antibiotics for the purpose of growth promotion, but most chicken companies routinely give antibiotics to healthy animals to promote growth: “As a result, bacteria become resistant to these overused antibiotics.”
The outbreak has effected 278 people, and hospitalized 42% of those people. 53 of those people were confirmed to have eaten Foster Farms Chicken. Yikes!
I’ve always been happy with the Foster Farms chicken I have bought in the past, especially the whole chickens I use for roasting.
“On October 8, 2013, the FSIS reassured the public that: “Foster Farms chicken is safe to eat but as with all raw chicken, consumers must use proper preparation, handling and cooking practices.”
Please know that establishment or plant code numbers only indicate the locations where FSIS is pursuing further testing. These plant numbers are not associated with any product recall; nor specific products. Further, Foster Farms has already implemented additional controls with these plants to fully ensure safety.” Foster Farms
So, what do you think, should Foster Farms get shut down until they can get the problem under control? Should they recall their chicken?
~Mavis
Lauren says
Hate factory farmed meat of any type. It’s no way to treat an animal, or the people who process and/or eat that animal. Unfortunately, chicken ordinances in my town don’t allow me to raise meat birds, so I’m stuck with grocery store chicken. 🙁 Most of it out here comes from Tyson, but I imagine they are even worse than Foster Farms.
Barry 'CB' Martin says
I’m not arguing with you Lauren – and respect your POV about factory farming – but please note that Foster Farms has been inspected and received certification by the American Humane Association as American Humane Certified. My sense of them is they are attempting the impossible – produce animal protein as efficiently as possible and keep costs down for consumers. $1 a pound is protein that nearly any income can afford and use in many ways. It may not be organic but that protein costs 5x as much per pound, not realistic for about 1/3 of American incomes. I’m not affiliated with FF in any way…
Carolyne Thrasher says
So sad. I like Foster Farms but for the last 2 years I have been buying my chickens off a friend. She raises a bunch and then has them processed and whenever I need 3 in the freezer I just call her. I feel much safer because her chickens are raised in a clean environment not a dirty factory farm which is just basically what causes this type of scenario. Sometimes large scale isn’t better.
Brooke says
YES! Antibiotic resistant bacteria is a huge problem that is getting worse all the time. So when we are infected, there is no treatment.antibiotics won’t work. It’s VERY scary. Not a fan of foster farms.
Kristina says
Foster Farms does NOT use sub-therapeutic antibiotics on its chickens, meaning it only gives sick chickens antibiotics, not to well ones to promote growth. If you had read the article more carefully, you would have seen that NPR never links this to Foster Farms directly administering antibiotics, and only states that the salmonella found is a resistant strain (which chickens can catch, just like humans can). Of course, Foster Farms should be careful in its processing procedures, which may need revision, but that is a different matter altogether. Please read more carefully before throwing stuff like this out there. You have the power to influence a lot of readers, and peoples’ livelihoods are at stake here.
Mavis Butterfield says
Thanks Kristina,
I have since updated the post. 🙂
April says
But the fact is that their birds live in an environment where bacteria are rampant and they end up dosing the birds with antibiotics far more than you probably realize. So while they may not give it to them prophylactically, they definitely give it to them more than birds raised in different conditions are getting and far more than any animal or person should be ingesting. If you have the option of buying from a smaller operation who don’t treat their birds with antibiotics, you definitely should.
Claire Bacon says
Yes, hut them down until they get it under control and yes, recall.
Mary Ann says
As long as you cook your chicken fully it should be fine, right?
If that’s the case, no recall is necessary. It would be a waste for those chickens to lose their life only to be tossed in the garbage.
Cecily says
Yes it is completely safe if properly cooked. People have gotten sick through their own unsafe cooking practices. Chicken should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. If you make sure of that then you won’t get sick. On a side note, more people get seriously ill from contaminated fresh produce than from meat. Remember the listeria outbreak on cantaloupe in 2012? And in February of this year there was that e.coli contaminated organic spinach.
emily says
I’m curious if Zaycon gets their chicken from Foster Farms. I was planning on buying next week, but am a little nervous about commercial chicken now 🙂
Becca Gordon says
I just picked up my Zaycon chicken order last night and it came from Wayne Farms (I specifically looked at the box for just that reason). You probably will be just fine.
Lisa L says
My hubby said as long as it’s cooked he would still eat it no matter what. I don’t agree and I poured out all the bone broth I had made from my latest FF chicken. It’s a scary thing. I think they should recall, my hubby disagrees.
Francie Dutra says
Seriously…”get a grip”….this is nothing new…there are new strains of bacteria/virus every year for animals and humans..i.e. the flu shot you get this year covers the strain of flu from last year, not this years bug,etc. Use common sense, good hygiene techniques and cook the chicken properly and you will be okay.
JC says
While you have a point, the more folks that buy from grocery stores buying from factory farms with deplorable conditions the more antibiotic-resistent bacteria will be produced and there is an increased chance of accidentally creating a superbug that antibiotics can’t touch or where safe practices won’t make a difference. Yes, life in the form of bacteria continues to develop but factory farm conditions speed the development of the bad bugs to the point where human cleverness simply can’t keep up.
Catherine says
While you’re right that there are new strains every year, I’d like to remind you that it only takes one to wipe out the human population. By some estimates, the 1918 flu pandemic killed 5% of the population. And that’s just the regular ole flu, not anything fun like ebola. Innovations in vaccinations and public health/epidemiology measures have shielded us from other deadly outbreaks.
I absolutely understand where you’re coming from, and don’t recommend buying to the panic that seems to wash over the nation periodically. BUT I also studied disease transmission/epidemic models in college (SIR shout out, anyone? also, please vaccinate your kids). The conditions necessary for previously (relatively) benign germs to utterly destroy us are a lot easier to reach than you’d like. So, when entire industries create conditions that drive us towards the kind of epidemic I don’t ever want to live through… it makes me really unhappy. Think about it another way. Evolution/natural selection are already acting to create superbugs and there is really nothing we can do about it except hope that science can keep up. If we add additional artificial selection in the form of excessive use of antibiotics, we not only get superbugs faster, but we specifically get superbugs that we don’t have science for. A la CDC – “Every year, more than two million people in the United States get infections that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die as a result.” Bad. News. Bears.
On another note… does anyone else find it irritating when people/industries say things like “but if consumers just followed proper precautions..” I do! And I think its perfectly reasonable to expect industry to do it to. Why they act so indignant about having to act like people, I just will never understand.
PattyB says
Chicken is safe eat if it is cooked to the proper temperature which kills the bacteria. The problem is cross contamination when preparing it. I saw on TV where the lady preparing he chicken cleaned her hands and the surfaces. But when the turned on the blue light, contamination showed up on the salad, her knuckle, some spots on the counter top. Maybe wear plastic gloves handling the raw meat would help.
PattyB says
Sorry for the misspells…I have a band aid on the tip of my finger…lol
Mary says
A few years ago I always purchased Foster Farm chickens and they were fine. A couple of years ago I started noticing a off flavor of my baked chickens and I couldn’t figure it out. I finally stopped buying them and now am using home raised. I figured the off flavor was coming from additives injected into them.
Peggy Stenglein says
I know that price is often the clincher in shopping for the family, but buying off of a small scale farmer where less chickens are raised, and ideally they are able to free range and forage, at the very least, given a large outside run that is cleaned regularly, and all of those things are possible…it’s best to buy meat from someone local, or raise it yourself. I like knowing where my food comes from, that the animals led a healthy life, able to move about and not overcrowded. When I was a kid, we raised our own beef and pork. When you raise and nurture an animal, it’s sad to have them go to the butcher, but there is no waste with an animal that you loved and cared for. You respect that the animal is providing for you.
Cecily says
I feel that animals raised by small, independent farmers or family friends are definitely happier and treated better than most of those big name brand processors. But you are fooling yourself if you think the meat they produce is any safer than those big companies. They are not regulated by the FDA and USDA like the big guys are, and, considering the fact that these companies process hundreds of times the number of animals that small farmers do, the odds are greater that there will be some problems that arise. I appreciate the fact that FF is doing everything they can to address this issue and that they are humane certified and hormone free. I will continue to buy their products.
Cee says
I’m an epidemiologist and I would have no problem eating their chicken. Everyone that wants a recall, I’d be happy to take yours. Salmonella is killed when properly cooked and I am careful about cross-contamination in my kitchen. Just because you know that this brand has tested positive doesn’t mean that the other brand sitting in your fridge doesn’t also contain salmonella – or worse. Factory farming, by itself, increases the risk of salmonella in birds because the crowded conditions causes stress and lowers the bird’s immune function and makes it easier for the birds to pass the germs between themselves. So if you are changing brands hoping to avoid this risk, then you need to pay more for the free range chickens that are *Truly* free range (as in not only do they have a door to get outside but they know how to use it and they aren’t overcrowded). I agree with Barry, it’s a well-intentioned company trying to compete in a land of cheap food.
krista says
most the stores in my area of california have pulled foster farms from their shelves, recall or not, customers wont buy it now and they just go to waste and rot on the shelves.
Laurie says
Geez, just cook your chicken properly. Home grown or store bought.
Michele P. says
I have FF chicken in the freezer bought a while ago that was from these plants. I cannot decide whether I should toss them or not. It’s a lot of $$ to throw away… However, Salmonella freaks me out! I will most likely toss them unless FF releases some more info on what they think was contaminated.
I am considering raising my own chickens. How can you test your own chickens for Salmonella?
Joy says
As someone who has raised chickens and slaughtered chickens, I feel most of you are overly romantic about the process. Slaughtering is smelly and icky no matter how you do it. There is ample opportunity to get salmonella germs onto your meat even when you are doing it yourself. (I think it much easier to slaughter meat rabbits cleanly.) All chicken, ALL CHICKEN, “factory farmed”, small farm, from your own back yard… HAS SALMONELLA. Period. The only way to keep yourself safe is proper cooking and handling. In selecting chicken to buy, please consider the other factors you are willing to pay more for. I have a bias against “Southern chicken” brands and generics, based on a track record of lying about antibiotic use. I think FF is a great value for the product, and has long been my trusted brand for purchased chicken. I slaughter our chickens as needed, but believe me the $1-$2 per pound for a FF chicken is sooooo worth it. There is just no way we could afford the ideal ‘pastured’ chicken when feeding 7 on an annual salary of $42k.