Risk posed by Salmonella infantis in chicken

12.1.2017

Question for written answer E-000134-17
to the Commission
Rule 130
Dubravka Šuica (PPE)

In a June 2016 scientific report on the public health risk posed by Salmonella infantis in chicken the Croatian food agency notes that this salmonella serovar is not mentioned in the 2005 Commission regulation. The samples inspected have been taken both from Croatian domestic production and from imports, and home-produced chicken meat has been found increasingly frequently to be contaminated with salmonella of this type. Salmonella infantis can make people ill (cases have, indeed, been confirmed in Croatia) and, if it is in fresh poultrymeat, can constitute a public health hazard. Even though, in Commission Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 of 15 November 2005 on microbiological criteria for foodstuffs, Salmonella infantis is not mentioned in connection with food safety criteria, poultrymeat that has it is considered harmful to human health.

Given that Salmonella infantis is a public health hazard, will the Commission include it in Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 and in that way improve salmonella control?