Food Safety
Everyone wants to make sure that their families are eating food that is safe. The following bullets should help you understand the steps taken to protect our poultry flocks and how to safely handle and cook poultry:
- Commercial Flocks
- U.S. commercial poultry is grown, inspected and processed at the highest safety standards in the world
- Poultry is inspected prior to processing and again after processing
- Sick or dead birds are not processed
- All poultry flocks are tested for avian influenza
- Safe Food Supply
- Commercial flocks are raised indoors
- Strict regulations prevent countries that have avian flu outbreaks from sending poultry products to the United States
- Biosecurity prevents wild bird exposure
- Poultry raised away from other species
- Animals are not kept in homes/close human contact
- US flocks are regularly tested for disease
- 75,000 + birds annually
- Cooking
- With proper handling and cooking, the avian influenza virus presents no food safety threat to people
- Wash your hands when handling food
- Clean all surfaces in contact with raw meat
- Keep raw meat, poultry, fish and their juices away from other foods
- Keep foods cold before and after cooking
- Do not eat raw eggs. Only use raw eggs in recipes that are cooked after adding the eggs
- Do not cross-contaminate cooked and uncooked items, including utensils, hands and preparation surfaces
- Poultry should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, which is more than adequate to kill the AI virus
Additional information on safe food handling can be found on USDA’s website.
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| © This site is a collaborative effort of the New Mexico Department of Health, the New Mexico Cooperative Extension Service, the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, the New Mexico Livestock Board, and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.
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