In an unfortunate turn of events, the USDA is expected to approve a number of new regulations for the United States poultry plant industry as early as this summer. In an effort to keep up with the ever increasing demand for chicken and turkey, the new rules would allow for a 25% increase in poultry line speeds — that’s an increase of 140 to 175 chickens, and 45 to 55 turkeys per hour.

Well, that doesn’t sound so bad, right? Unfortunately — wrong.

With the birds moving down the line at such an increased rate, the ability of workers to spot contaminants including fecal matter would be greatly reduced. With the current regulations, when a bird is identified as contaminated it is removed from the line for manual inspection and a cleaning process which involves dousing the poultry with antimicrobial chemicals. With the new regulations, such slow and manual processes would defeat the purpose of the increase rate. The solution? No birds would leave the line, and to prevent massive contamination issues ALL birds would be dosed with large amounts of antimicrobial chemicals.

According to federal officials as reported by The Washington Post, “the problem is government agencies have not conducted independent research into the possible side effects on consumers of using the chemicals. Instead, they review data provided by chemical manufacturers.” But, these are the same chemicals which have been identified by poultry plant workers as catalysts for major respiratory complications, asthma, burns, rashes, sinus ulcers, and even death.

Thankfully, the poultry delivered directly to your home from Passanante’s Home Food Services is not the same poultry whizzing down the conductor belts in these plants across the country. We pride ourselves on being a credible food delivery service who provides fresh, clean and natural grade A poultry. None of our products are CAFO raised or mass produced. All of our poultry is raised on local farms in Maryland and Pennsylvania on a natural, seed based diet — free of hormones and antibiotics.

At Passanante’s we’re serious about the quality of foods we provide to our customers, we even guarantee it. If you’re interested in speaking to someone at Passanante’s feel free to give us a call at 800-772-7786.