The top nine retailers across the UK have published their latest testing results on campylobacter contamination in UK-produced fresh whole chickens (covering samples tested from October to December 2018).
The latest figures show that on average, across the major retailers, 3.1% 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.
Michael Wight, Director of Policy at the Food Standards Agency said: “It is encouraging that campylobacter levels in retail chicken are holding consistently low, however we will continue to work closely with retailers and smaller poultry businesses to bring levels down to as low as reasonably achievable.
“We would like to thank the major retailers and poultry producers for continuing to work alongside the FSA in the publication of the results.”
Results
| Contamination levels | January-March 2018 | April-June 2018 | July-September 2018 | October-December 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cfu/g less than 10 | 59.1% | 60.6% | 58.8% | 63.1% |
| cfu/g 10-99 | 23.9% | 23.3% | 26.7% | 22.3% |
| cfu/g 100-1000 | 13.2% | 12.5% | 11% | 11.4% |
| cfu/g over 1000 | 3.8% | 3.7% | 3.5% | 3.1% |