The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has denied the petition filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest that requested the FSIS to issue an interpretive rule declaring antibiotic-resistant (ABR) strains of Salmonella (Hadar, Heidelberg, Newport and Typhimurium) to be adulterants in raw ground meat and poultry products.

The FSIS denied the petition because the agency does not consider raw meat and poultry products, including ground meat, to be adulterated when they contain Salmonella because ordinary methods of cooking and preparing destroy Salmonella. Also, the FSIS said that more information regarding ABR Salmonella infectious dose, virulence and heat-resistance was needed.