Salmonella in poultry issue awaits Brashears’ unscheduled Senate confirmation

The last time Mindy Brashears waited almost 700 days to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate as USDA’s Under Secretary for Food Safety, and be just in time for the nation’s pandemic crisis. Nominated for the second time by the President Trump on June 2 to be the nation’s top food safety official, the slow-moving Senate Committee on Agriculture has not yet scheduled a hearing for Brashears.  

But there is again something waiting for the Texas Tech University professor of food safety. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, at the opening of a new food safety laboratory near the St.Louis airport, said USDA is “charging ahead to reduce salmonella illnesses.”

Rollins has tasked the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) with finding a “more effective and achievable approach” to address Salmonellain poultry products than the previous administration’s “Salmonella Framework,” which she pulled down in April.

The new administration cited concerns about the abandoned rule that had been raised by industry regarding the regulatory burden and costs that would have been imposed on poultry growers and processors.

Ashley Peterson, National Chicken Council Senior Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, said: “America’s chicken producers appreciate USDA’s common sense and science-based approach to achieve improvements in food safety.  We share the department’s goals to reduce foodborne illness further and promote public health, with an emphasis on reducing regulatory burdens.”

NCC’s top scientist also applauded the USDA for withdrawing the proposed Salmonella regulations introduced by the previous administration earlier this year.

Brashears will likely be tasked with developing a replacement strategy to eliminate Salmonella from the most susceptible poultry products. Rollins said FSIS is beginning by convening listening sessions with key industry players to collaborate on the best approaches moving forward.  

Peterson said the Salmonella Framework, as it was proposed, was based on misinterpretations of the science, would have had no meaningful impact on public health, would have led to an extraordinary amount of food waste, and increased costs for producers and consumers,. 

Before Brashears left government at the end of the first Trump administration, the Texas Tech professor and administrator had released a plan to decrease Salmonella with an approach that she said would be science-based, data-driven, and promote innovation to reduce the pathogen in meat, poultry, and egg products.

“This roadmap represents FSIS’s commitment to lead with science and data in everything we do. It puts us on a course to aggressively target Salmonella and other foodborne pathogens,” Brashears said. “I look forward to continued partnership with the food safety community in driving a science-based approach to protecting public health.”

The FSIS continued to act on the 2020 approach, but with a determination to declare Salmonella an adulterant in breaded stuffed raw chicken products when they exceed a very low level of Salmonella contamination. 

At that time, Brachears said the poultry industry should focus on the pathogenic Salmonella serotypes — those causing human illnesses, not all Salmonella.

“The industry can obtain scientific data faster than FSIS and should lead the way,” she said.  FSIS is not a research agency that exists to enforce public policy.   Dr. Jose Emilio followed Brashear as USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety.

Between Trump 45 and Trump 47, Brashears returned to Texas Tech University with the additional title of Associate Vice President of Research to her previous position as Professor of Food Safety and Public Health, in the Roth and Letch family Endowed Chair of Food Safety.  

She also serves as the director of TTU’s  International Center for Food Industry Excellence. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and has three spinoff companies based on her work. 

Brashears holds a B.S. in Food Technology from Texas Tech (magna cum laude) and master of science and Ph.D. degrees in Food Science from Oklahoma State University.  

Her university research focuses on mitigation strategies in pre- and post-harvest environments, as well as the emergence of antimicrobial drug resistance in agricultural ecosystems. She is primarily interested in meat, poultry, and vegetable products.  

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Source: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2025/07/salmonella-in-poultry-issue-awaits-brashears-unscheduled-senate-confirmation/