Meeting HP2030 goals seems like a long way away from now. For those who don’t know what I am talking about, Healthy People 2030 (HP2030) goals are set by public health agencies in the Federal Government to keep us on task towards keeping the citizens of our country healthy. There are several HP2030 goals for Food Safety including STECs, Listeria and, of course, Salmonella. The fact that we have failed to meet HP2030 goals for Salmonella every decade and the numbers remain flat drives regulations and public policies. We have done pretty well with the others, with blips up and down over the decades.

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with a group of federal leaders from FDA, USDA/FSIS, and CDC along with industry leaders and academia in a HP2030 meeting sponsored by AFDO. It was an awesome meeting focusing on farm-to-table goals to actually meet HP2030 targets. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found that there are groups working diligently to meet these goals and improve public health outcomes.

The HP2030 goals for Salmonella are to have 11.5 illnesses per 100,000 individuals. The official report on health.gov lists Salmonella as “improving” with 13.3 laboratory-diagnosed illnesses per 100,000 in 2021. The baseline set on 2016-2018 data was 15.3 illnesses per 100,000. This goal is driving many of the current food safety policies in meat and poultry. However, let’s put these objectives into perspective to frame the policies in relationship to HP2030 goals. I do this not to criticize the effort, but to illustrate that any effort must be focused on multiple commodities, as was emphasized last week at the meeting.

In our world, the focus is currently on a Salmonella framework for poultry alone. Adulterant status gets even more focused on raw, breaded, stuffed chicken breasts. From 1998-2022, there were 187 laboratory-confirmed Salmonella infections related to this product. It doesn’t take a mathematician to calculate that if we removed all of these infections, the needle would not even be moved one bit. Yes, I know that there are more illnesses than those that are laboratory confirmed, but that is the metric that drives HP2030 goals. The reality is that even if we removed all outbreaks associated with all poultry, we would not meet the HP2030 goal. While the optics of this policy look good and the motive is founded in good intentions, the reality and public health impact is minimal.

We absolutely need to make progress towards meeting this objective because it is critical to protect public health and prevent illnesses. However, in order to make a real impact, the actions not only in the meat and poultry world, but in all commodities, must be targeted towards metrics that actually influence the public and can’t be decisions that simply appease public outcries. The action needs to be against Salmonella itself and not just poultry (or leafy greens). Salmonella is the enemy, not a particular commodity or commodity group. Identifying and targeting the most pathogenic Salmonella and removing those from the food supply will go a long way in actually making a difference.

Cooperation and collaboration is the key. Cooperation between livestock producers and leafy green producers. Cooperation with industry, government and academia. Science-based policies that drive down illnesses. We have to continue to talk and share and encourage transparency. Within the world of meat and poultry, we do a great job of doing this. The industries share with each other to make lasting changes. It’s an FSIS-governed industry sharing with FDA-governed industry and visa-versa approach. Are we ready for that? I think so. This is happening at the government level, and I witnessed it last week at the AFDO meeting. We can never go wrong continuing to share knowledge, and at the end of the day, the public wins!

Healthy People 2023 Update

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