FDBusiness.com

The top nine retailers across the UK have now published their latest testing results on campylobacter contamination in UK-produced fresh whole chickens (covering samples tested from January to March 2018). The latest figures show that on average, across the major retailers, 3.8% of chickens tested positive for the highest level of contamination; these are the chickens carrying more than 1,000 colony forming units per gram (cfu/g) of campylobacter. The corresponding figure for the previous set of results (October-December 2017) was 3.6%, while for the first publication (July-September 2017) it was 4.6%.

Michael Wight, Director of Policy and Science at the Food Standards Agency, says: “The latest figures are consistent with previous results and show we are consolidating on the significant progress made so far. We will continue to actively work with retailers and smaller poultry businesses to further reduce campylobacter levels.”

He adds: “We would like to thank the major retailers and poultry producers for their efforts in tackling campylobacter and for working alongside the FSA to coordinate the publication of results.”

The method of results analysis has been adjusted to avoid it becoming distorted by variations in sample numbers submitted by retailers. The results still show a low and stable proportion of chickens with the highest level of contamination, which is consistent with previous results.