Score another one for sanity and American consumers. President Donald Trump’s Department of Agriculture just scrapped a burdensome, job-killing, food-wasting Obama-Biden era salmonella rule that was all but guaranteed to raise grocery prices and drown small poultry producers in red tape.
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Thursday it is officially withdrawing a proposal cooked up during Biden’s disastrous presidency that would have required poultry companies to test endlessly for salmonella, limit the presence of specific strains, and potentially recall entire product lines based on arbitrary thresholds. In typical Biden-era fashion, it was regulation for the sake of regulation, heavy on government overreach and light on actual science.
FSIS said it reviewed more than 7,000 public comments, including a tidal wave of objections from farmers, processors, academics, and consumer groups. The result? A common-sense decision to hit the brakes and rethink the entire bureaucratic mess.
Under Biden’s plan, any chicken or turkey products that exceeded salmonella standards or tested positive for certain strains would have been banned from sale. Producers would’ve been forced to dump perfectly good food—driving up costs, increasing waste, and tightening supply chains at a time when American families are already paying more for groceries thanks to Bidenomics.
The USDA had claimed the rule would cut salmonella illnesses by 125,000 cases for chicken and 43,000 for turkey each year. But critics slammed those figures as wishful thinking and pointed out that forcing mass recalls on trace bacteria wouldn’t magically prevent every foodborne illness—it would just punish producers and consumers alike.
The Trump administration’s USDA rightly noted that the proposed framework raised major red flags about legal authority, the scientific basis behind the regulations, the devastating economic impacts, and the crushing burden it would have placed on small poultry producers.
In a statement Thursday, FSIS emphasized it still supports reducing salmonella illnesses—but not by ramming through a legally shaky, scientifically questionable mandate that would kneecap an essential industry. In other words, they’re aiming for smarter, not bigger, government.
Naturally, the common-sense move was met with approval by people who actually understand agriculture and food production. The National Chicken Council praised the withdrawal, blasting the proposed rule as “legally unsound,” “scientifically misinterpreted,” and “meaningless for public health.”
Ashley Peterson, senior vice president at the council, hit the nail on the head: “It would have caused extraordinary food waste and higher prices for producers and consumers.” She added that the Council looks forward to working with FSIS on reasonable, science-based policies that actually protect public health without wrecking American food production.
Predictably, the liberal outrage machine kicked into gear. Sandra Eskin, a Biden USDA holdover, whined to the Associated Press that dropping the rule “sends the clear message” that President Trump doesn’t care about food safety. Sarah Sorscher of the far-left Center for Science in the Public Interest called it a “missed opportunity,” hysterically claiming it would lead to “more Americans getting sick.”
Maybe if these bureaucrats cared half as much about enforcing the border as they do about micromanaging chicken nuggets, we’d have fewer fentanyl deaths, but that’s a topic for another day.
This isn’t about public health—it’s about control. Just like their war on gas stoves, gas cars, and plastic straws, the Left’s food safety crusade has nothing to do with helping Americans and everything to do with expanding their power over our daily lives. President Trump’s team saw it for what it was—and pulled the plug before more damage could be done.
Once again, common sense wins, and freedom wins. And poultry? Poultry just dodged a government-sized bullet.