While you’re scarfing down wings and that beverage Americans call beer during the Super Bowl, be content to know that the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has framed new rules with an aim to lessen salmonella and campylobacter in ground chicken and turkey products. The FSIS has updated its microbial testing schedule at poultry facilities and will start the provision of online updates of individual companies’ food safety performance.

The new rulings demand that the companies have to reduce the frequency of contaminated chicken parts to 15% or less. The new standard has also levied limits for turkey and ground meat products. Alfred Almanza, the USDA’s deputy undersecretary for food safety, was of the view that after a year of testing, the USDA will start posing the test results from every poultries.

“[This] is not a good thing for them, if they’re failing. So those are pretty significant deterrents, or incentives for them to meet or exceed our standard”, affirmed Almanza. But as per some, there is a lot of guesswork required in the calculation.

As part of this move to make chicken and turkey items that Americans frequently purchase safer to eat, FSIS has also updated its microbial testing schedule at poultry facilities and will soon begin posting more information online about individual companies’ food safety performance.