The top nine retailers across the United Kingdom published their latest testing results on Campylobacter contamination in U.K.-produced fresh whole chickens, which covered samples tested from July to September 2018.
The latest figures show that on average, across the major retailers, 3.5 percent 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 (April - June 2018) was 3.7 percent, while for the first publication (July-September 2017) it was 4.6 percent.
“The latest figures show further progress being made in our efforts to reduce Campylobacter in U.K.-produced fresh whole chickens,” Michael Wight, director of policy at the U.K. Food Standards Agency (FSA) said in a press release.
“We will continue to build on these encouraging results, working closely with retailers and smaller poultry businesses to bring levels down to as low as reasonably achievable. Thanks again to the major retailers and poultry producers for continuing to tackle Campylobacter and for working alongside the FSA in the publication of the results.”
