France Notifies RASFF of Monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium in Chicken Neck Skins, the Reference Sample for Salmonella on Carcasses

France notified the European Union's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) of the detection of monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium in chicken neck skins. The alert, reference 2026.9475, was validated by the European Commission on October 23, 2026 and classifies the risk as serious. The product is described as chickens, offal and cut pieces of French origin, marketed chilled, and the notification indicates that it was distributed outside the country: Switzerland is listed as the destination and as the country in charge of follow-up.

According to the notification, the finding comes from a company own check, with a sample taken on October 8, and was assessed under Regulation (EC) 2073/2005 on microbiological criteria for foodstuffs. As measures, France reported the withdrawal of the product from the customers who received it and Switzerland reported its recall from consumers. On October 29 the Swiss authority added a follow-up with the outcome of its investigations and the measures taken. The public notification does not detail batches, quantities or associated cases of illness, and the notifier is the Directorate General for Food (DGAL) of the French Ministry of Agriculture.

Neck skin is the sample that European regulations set for verifying Salmonella on chicken carcasses, because it is one of the areas that accumulates the most contamination during slaughter and processing. For Salmonella in general, a positive on carcasses works as an indicator of process hygiene and requires the line to be corrected. By contrast, for Salmonella Typhimurium, including its monophasic variant, and for Salmonella Enteritidis, the regulation requires their absence in fresh poultry meat throughout its shelf life, so the finding requires the product to be recalled. The monophasic variant, which does not express one of the two phases of its flagellar antigen, is among the most frequent in human salmonellosis in Europe. Chicken meat must be cooked thoroughly, and the main household risk is cross-contamination from the raw piece to utensils and ready-to-eat foods.

For slaughterhouses and cutting plants, the case shows the difference between a process hygiene incident and a finding that triggers a recall with international reach: knowing the serotype in time determines whether correcting the line is enough or the batch must be recalled. TAAG's Ampliora 1.1 kit detects Salmonella spp. by real-time PCR and raw chicken is among its validated matrices, so it matches the microorganism and the matrix of the alert. The kit does not distinguish serotypes, so a positive result must be confirmed with the reference method and serotyped to find out whether it is Typhimurium or Enteritidis.