7/26/2019 Dirty Chicken Scandal Campylobacter Found in Eight Out of 10 UK Birds

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Dirty chicken scandal:

campylobacter found in eight out of

10 UK birds

Food watchdog warns that Asda has worst rate of contamination but all other supermarket

chains failing to meet national targets

Food poisoning scandal: how chicken spreads campylobacter 

Raw chickens in a Britishsupermarket. Photograph: Mood Board/Re

7/26/2019 Dirty Chicken Scandal Campylobacter Found in Eight Out of 10 UK Birds

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Peter Walker  and Felicity Lawrence-!hursday "# $o%ember "&'(

)ight out of '& fresh chickens bought from *+ supermarkets this summer werecontaminated with the potentially lethal food,poisoning bug campylobacter- the foodwatchdog has said- warning that not one indi%idual chain is meeting national targets

 o%er the issue. 

Following si months of testing- an a%erage of #& of supermarket chickens pro%edpositi%e for campylobacter on samples of skin. ithin that- the Food 0tandards

 Agency said- the more recent three months of tests from May to 1uly showed an 2&incidence. !he bug tends to be more pre%alent during the summer- but consumergroups epressed shock at the soaring le%els.

 Across the si,month period '2 of the nearly "-&&& chickens tested contained thehighest le%els of campylobacter- the le%els seen as most likely to make people ill. 3of packaging showed signs of the bug.

 Asda was the worst,performing retailer- with #2 of its chickens taken to labs testingpositi%e for campylobacter o%er the period- followed by 4o,op 5#67- and thenMorrison8s- 0ainsbury8s and aitrose- all on 39- with Marks 0pencer showing anincidence of 3# and !esco the best at 3(.

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;t is the first breakdown of the results between the %arious supermarket chains- theF0A said.

 A collection of other retailers- taking in smaller discount chains such as <idl- Aldi and;celand- as well as indi%idual retailers and butchers- had a total incidence of #3.=owe%er- "> of the chickens from these shops had the highest le%els ofcontamination- the worst apart from Asda- which had "2.

;ntroducing the findings- 0te%e earne- director of policy for the F0A- said both

retailers and the handful of giant poultry processors that ser%e them needed to actswiftly if they wanted to reach their official target of reducing the proportion of freshchickens carrying the highest le%els of campylobacter to '& by the end of "&'>. ;nthe past week- the ma?or retailers ha%e been stepping up plans to introduce flash,free@ing- steaming and new bagging methods to reduce the bug8s occurrence.

0hoppers could still protect themsel%es and their families by following ad%ice oncorrectly handling- storing and cooking chickens- earne said. =owe%er- he stressed-this was not entirely up to them.

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“;t8s not all about consumers- he said. !he industry needs to take steps to raise theirgame- to make strides towards reducing the burden of illness that campylobactercause C "2&-&&& cases each year in the *+. More needs to be done.

“e know that if the industry meets its target o%er the net year they will pre%ent tensof thousands of people each year getting ill from this really nasty bug- and will stop

do@ens of people each year dying from this bug and the complications it sometimescauses- and will sa%e the *+ hundreds of millions of pounds in a%oiding lostproducti%ity. e think- Duite simply- that that8s a target worth aiming for.

!he target of no more than '& of birds lea%ing processing plants with the highestle%els of campylobacter was a good yardstick- earne said: e want le%els ofcampylobacter to be reduced across the board- but this focus on the most highly,contaminated birds C we know it8s those which are most likely to make people ill ,allows us to ?udge the progress that8s being made.

 As yet- he noted- not one ma?or retailer was currently meeting this le%el- with the best-

!esco- seeing a rate of '' for the first si months of the planned year of testing.

earne said: !he results show that where%er you buy chicken from it might ha%ecampylobacter on it- and that no indi%idual retailer- nor the industry as a whole- is yetmeeting the targets we ha%e agreed.

 Asked what processors and retailers were doing- earne said they depended on arange of factors. Among the a la carte menu of inter%entions included better bio,security and more changes of o%eralls and boots between sheds at farms- betterprocesses for e%iscerating birds at processing plants- and inno%ations in stores suchas leak,proof packaging and roast,in,the,bag chickens- stopping consumers from

ha%ing to handle the raw meat.

“;t will reDuire C it does reDuire C material in%estment- he said. And we know fromtalking to the retailers and processors that it8s in the order of millions of pounds. Butthe public health gains are etremely significant.

;n a response to the results- the 4onsumers Association said much more needed to bedone and supermarket bosses should hang their head in shame.

“!hese results are a damning indictment of supermarkets and consumers will berightly shocked at the failure of trusted household brands to stem the tide of

increasingly high le%els of campylobacter- said Richard <loyd from the organisation. An Asda spokesperson said: e take campylobacter seriously and it goes withoutsaying that we8re disappointed with these findings. !here is no Esil%er bullet8 to tacklethis issue- but along with other retailers- we8re working hard to find a solution.

!he supermarket said: e ha%e led the industry in packaging inno%ation and were thefirst supermarket to launch roast,in,the,bag chicken- remo%ing the need to handle rawmeat. Asda is trialling a new procedure- 0ono0team- which- if successful- will be

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rolled out across its suppliers.

!he British Retail 4onsortium said it would be working e%en harder to find solutions tohelp consumers such as leak,proof packaging for all raw chicken and new roast,in,the,bag products.

!he consortium8s director of food and sustainability said: !here has been concern thatimplementing a solution to pre%ent campylobacter will mean the cost of chickenincreases but we belie%e any increase should be small- and in our competiti%e marketretailers will work with their suppliers to do e%erything they can to a%oid passing thison to consumers.

!he British Poultry 4ouncil said: !he data released from si months of samplingshows that all producers and retailers ha%e le%els in the same range. !his reinforceshow uni%ersal and challenging the issue is and the comple nature of campylobacter.

“Poultry producers ha%e looked at e%ery part of their production chain to see wherenew ideas and technology can combat this %ery comple bacteria: impro%edbiosecurity on farms- new methods in the slaughterhouse- and brand newtechnologies being de%eloped such as 0ono0team- rapid surface chilling- and roast,in,the,bag packaging. e hope that a combination of these measures will- o%er time-reduce the le%el of campylobacter in chickens.

Campylobacter Q&A 

hat is campylobacter4ampylobacter is a nasty food,poisoning bug that thri%es in the gut and faeces of allkinds of poultry and can cause infections in humans.

hat8s the problem with chickens*p to 2& of cases of campylobacter food poisoning in humans may be attributable tocontaminated raw chicken.

=ow serious is it4ampylobacter makes around "2&-&&& people sick and causes approimately '&&deaths each year in the *+- although the figure for illness is probably much highersince most people do not report milder cases of food poisoning.

=ow much chicken is contaminated

)ighty per cent of fresh whole chickens in supermarkets and butchers werecontaminated in tests o%er the summer months from May to 1une. !he a%erage rate ofcontamination o%er si months- February to 1uly- was #&.

;s there any safe le%el of campylobacter$o- any le%el can make you sick but the higher the rate of contamination- the morelikely it is to make you sick. Gne,fifth of retail chicken tested fell into the hea%ilycontaminated category.

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;s it illegal to sell chicken contaminated with campylobacter$o- the industry is reDuired to remo%e from sale foods that test positi%e for salmonella-but are not restricted in selling campylobacter,contaminated food.

;s it safe to buy chicken!he bug is killed by cooking but can easily be spread from raw chicken. !he F0A

ad%ises consumers not to wash chicken before cooking as that can spread thebacteria around the kitchen- to double,wrap raw chicken to keep it separate from other food in the fridge- to throw away shopping bags that become contaminated with raw

 ?uice- to wash anything chicken comes in to contact with thoroughly- including hands-surfaces and utensils- and to cook chicken well. Free@ing also kills the bug.

 Are there safer places to buy chicken All ma?or supermarkets ha%e unacceptable le%els of campylobacter contamination ontheir fresh chicken- ranging from around two,thirds of birds contaminated for the bestperformers- to four,fifths of their birds carrying campylobacter in the worst. $o retaileris meeting the official target of ha%ing less than '& of its chickens hea%ily

contaminated. ;n the *+- 9& of fresh chickens come from the intensi%e farms andabattoirs of ?ust fi%e processing companies.

;s there much difference between retailers Asda tested as ha%ing #2 of chickens contaminated- with "2 hea%ily contaminated-and was abo%e a%erage- while !esco chickens tested as 3( contaminated with ''hea%ily contaminated and was below a%erage. All the other ma?or retailers had rates of contamination in between.

hat might account for the difference!he F0A says retailers dri%e standards in their specifications to suppliers so they will

be key to impro%ing the figures.

;s there any difference between top of the range and bargain special offer chickens orintensi%e and free range/organic$o- and they often come from the same abattoirs anyway.

Posted by Thavam