For the first time in more than 50 years, the United States Department of Agriculture is changing its guidelines. It hopes to substantially reduce foodborne illnesses.

The rules would decrease the number of poultry inspectors and the remaining ones would be more food safety-focused than quality-focused. The changes would be voluntary, but the major poultry companies are expected to adopt the new rules.

Currently the job of government inspectors is to stand in the production line and check for visual defects, however, the common pathogens such as salmonella are invisible.

The new regulations would additionally require more testing for pathogens at two different points in production.

"This is a significant opportunity to bring the inspection system into the 21st century," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The maximum speed for chicken and turkey processing lines will still be 140 birds per minute as a result of public concern about safety.

Under this system, companies would sort their own birds for quality before they are given to government inspectors.

"By allowing plant employees to conduct some preliminary sorting duties, federal inspectors will be freed to further verify testing on the spot, examine sanitation standards and enforcing safeguards throughout a processing plant," said Joel Brandenberger, president of the National Turkey Federation.

The two most common poultry pathogens are salmonella and campylobacter.

Salmonella is estimated to be the cause of 1.2 million illnesses in the US each year resulting in about 23,000 hospitalizations and 450 deaths.

These new rules were first proposed in 2012 when it was met with much opposition because people were worried that the new rules would give more of the inspection burden to the companies. They were also worried that reducing the number of inspectors would be a danger. The new rules omit the most controversial part of the original proposal that allowed companies to increase line speeds.

The USDA said since the new rules were voluntary, some companies might not choose to abide by them. But it said that if the companies were more proactive, the government wouldn't need as many inspectors and that would save taxpayer money.   

The USDA also hopes that this move could reduce foodborne illnesses to fewer than 5,000 a year.