Latest UK Results Show Further Reduction in Campylobacter on Chicken

UK - The latest results from the Food Standards Agency's Campylobacter survey on fresh chickens show a continued decrease in the number of contaminated birds.
calendar icon 27 May 2016
clock icon 3 minute read

The results for January to March 2016 also showed a reduction in those with the highest level of contamination from the equivalent quarter last year.

The latest data show 9.3 per cent of chickens tested positive for the highest level of contamination in this quarter, down from 21.8 per cent for the three months from December 2014 to February 2015.

Campylobacter was present on 50 per cent of chicken samples, down from 71 per cent in the equivalent quarter of the previous year. FSA tested 1,009 samples of fresh whole chilled UK-produced chickens and packaging this quarter.

Steve Wearne, Director of Policy at the FSA, said: "These results are moving in the right direction and I am delighted with progress. It shows what can be done by a real commitment to tackle this bug and I am encouraging industry to go even further, more quickly, to continue to get the numbers down.

"One of the reasons the survey results are lower this quarter is because of the decision taken by a number of retailers and their suppliers to remove neck skin from the bird before it goes on sale.

"This is good news for the consumer because the neck skin is the most contaminated part of the chicken. However it is also the part of the bird that we have been testing in our survey and this means that comparisons with previous results are not as reliable as we would like.

"Therefore, this quarter, we are giving an overall figure for the amount of campylobacter on chicken and not breaking the figures down by retailer as we normally do.

"We have also stopped this survey and will begin a new one in the summer, with a different method of testing campylobacter levels on chicken. First results from this survey, which will rank retailers, are due in January 2017."

© 2000 - 2024 - Global Ag Media. All Rights Reserved | No part of this site may be reproduced without permission.