Cooked poultry products must achieve a 7.0-log reduction in which organism during cooking?

• A. 6.5-log reduction in Salmonella
• B. 7.0-log reduction in E. coli
• C. 7.0-log reduction in Salmonella
• D. 8.0-log reduction in Salmonella

Answer: (C)

Salmonella is the primary pathogen of concern in poultry, and the regulatory cooking standard requires a 7.0-log reduction of Salmonella during cooking. A 7-log reduction means reducing the Salmonella population by a factor of 10^7 (a ten-million-fold decrease), which provides a strong safety margin to ensure that any survivors are unlikely to cause illness. E. coli is used as an indicator organism in some contexts, but the lethal target for cooking poultry is Salmonella, not E. coli. Therefore, the correct requirement is a 7.0-log reduction in Salmonella. The other options either target the wrong organism or specify a different magnitude of reduction.