By IVEY DeJESUS

pennlive.com

HARRISBURG (TNS) — Pennsylvania agricultural officials are striking a cautious tone in the wake of two Trump Administration measures poised to significantly impact food safety.

Officials from the Department of Agriculture are assuring the public that the decision by the White House to reverse federal regulations ensuring the safety of raw milk and poultry will have minimal impact across those industries in the Commonwealth.

Shannon Powers, press secretary for the Department of Agriculture, stressed that the state food inspection system, while in close contact with federal inspectors, runs independently of federal oversight and funding.

“As part of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s food safety program, dairy products are rigorously tested at every level of production — from the farm, to transport, to processing plants, and ultimately retail shelves,” she said “Laboratory, field, and supervisory staff must meet high proficiency standards prior to their hiring.”

The Trump administration last week reversed a federal regulation that requires poultry companies to limit salmonella bacteria in their products. The administration also suspended a program that ensures the quality of raw milk.

Starting this week, the Food and Drug Administration ended its proficiency testing program for Grade “A” raw milk and finished products. The rating was given to products that met the highest sanitary standards.

The poultry safety measure, which was developed by the Biden Administration, would have required poultry companies to keep levels of salmonella bacteria under a certain threshold and test for the presence of six strains most associated with illness.

Food safety staff and inspectors here, Powers said, undergo frequent training, and rigorous review of their daily work.

“The FDA’s pause in staff proficiency testing in some of its milk-testing laboratories will not affect the daily work of Pennsylvania government in close cooperation with the industry to ensure the safety of milk and other dairy products sold in Pennsylvania,” Powers said.

With the rise of cases avian flu, Pennsylvania began to require testing of bulk milk samples in late November. Since then Pennsylvania Animal Diagnostic Laboratory System labs have tested more than 16,600 samples, representing nearly 100% of the state’s 4,784 dairy farms.

As a result, Powers said, “Pennsylvania became the first major U.S. dairy-producing state to reach a critical “stage four” milestone granting [avian flu]-free status in the USDA’s National Milk Testing Strategy.”

The withdrawal from the poultry safety regulation, which would have affected turkey and chicken producers in Pennsylvania, was applauded by the National Chicken Council, a trade group, that criticized the Biden program as legally unsound and based on misrepresentation of the science. The council also said the program would have provided “no meaningful impact on public health.”

In Pennsylvania, poultry- processing plants are inspected and overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and not by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

Still, Powers signaled that the withdrawal from the program would have minimal impact in Pennsylvania.

“The Trump Administration’s announcement that it will withdraw a proposed rule and evaluate the need to tighten existing standards is not expected to affect Pennsylvania’s current food safety operations and responsibilities at the state level,” she said.

The recent orders are part of the aggressive cost-cutting and staff reductions rolled out by President Trump since he took office in January. The administration, for instance, has terminated an estimated 20,000 employees from the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which also has incurred deep cuts in staffing, estimates that salmonella causes approximately 1.35 million infections annually in the U.S. A significant number of those infections are linked to chicken and turkey. The illness accounts for approximately 420 deaths a year.

The FDA on Tuesday sent return-to-work notices to some lab personnel across the country, including those who were testing dairy cattle for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.

“The extent of the rehiring and how it will affect the FDA’s decision to suspend proficiency testing of lab personnel is not yet clear,” Powers said.

Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Luzerne County, chair of the House Agricultural Committee, said he was confident the commonwealth’s food safety would not be impaired by the federal measures.

“We have a very aggressive testing system and at this point, Pennsylvania, I think, is very safe, regardless of what they’ve done on the federal level,” he said.

“The key point we all want to make is that the last thing we want to do is make people apprehensive about purchasing food because they’re not sure whether it’s safe. In Pennsylvania, we have some of the most stringent rules and laws and procedures, and we have some of the finest operations for testing and research.”

Pashinski added that Pennsylvania’s food production sector is “in many respects, ahead of many of the other states.”

Still, he expressed concern over the recent decisions taken by the Trump administration. “It does concern me,” Pashinski said. “It’s the way he and his administration are going about it. It’s just rip everything apart and, and do a PR thing that you’re saving money. What I think the people expect when it comes to food is food safety. If you don’t feel comfortable about what’s on those shelves, you’re not going to buy it. So that is key.”