Developing a risk management framework to improve public health outcomes by enumerating and serotyping Salmonella in ground turkey

Salmonella enterica continues to be a leading cause of foodborne morbidity worldwide. A quantitative risk assessment model was developed to evaluate the impact of pathogen enumeration and serotyping strategies on public health after consumption of undercooked contaminated ground turkey in the USA. The risk assessment model predicted more than 20,000 human illnesses annually that would result in similar to 700 annual reported cases. Removing ground turkey lots contaminated with Salmonella exceeding 10 MPN/g, 1 MPN/g, and 1 MPN/25 g would decrease the mean number of illnesses by 38.2, 73.1, and 95.0%, respectively. A three-class mixed sampling plan was tested to allow the detection of positive lots above threshold levels with 2-6 (c = 1) and 3-8 samples per lot (c = 2) using 25-g and 325-g sample sizes for a 95% probability of rejecting a contaminated lot. Removal of positive lots with the presence of highly virulent serotypes would decrease the number of illnesses by 44.2-87.0%. Based on these model prediction results, risk management strategies should incorporate pathogen enumeration and/or serotyping. This would have a direct impact on illness incidence linking public health outcomes with measurable food safety objectives, at the cost of diverting production lots.