FSA finds presence of campylobacter in 73% of chickens

Tesco has said it is "committed" to reducing the food poisoning bug campylobacter in poultry.

"Providing safe food is always our absolute priority," a Tesco spokesperson said.

"Whilst there is no simple solution to prevent its presence in raw poultry we have and will continue to work in close collaboration with our suppliers, scientists and relevant industry experts to make solid progress to tackle the problem at all stages of the supply chain."

The British Poultry Council (BPC) has welcomed the news that retailers and suppliers are making "significant progress" in monitoring the food poisoning bug campylobacter.

Chief executive Andrew Large said the BPC "hopes proven technology will be made commercially available across the sector."

"The BPC remains committed to collaborative working between industry, retailers, and regulators, as we believe this is where long-term consistency will emerge," Large said.

"This joint effort is a complement to the creativity and investment we are seeing.”

Inspections have found that more than 70 per cent of fresh shop-bought chickens are contaminated with the food poisoning bug campylobacter and the food Standards Agency says the situation is getting worse.

Consumer Editor Chris Choi reports:

John Harris, epidemiologist at Public Health England, suggests that in the last year there were more than 60,000 laboratory reports of the food poisoning bug campylobacter.

He added that due to under-reporting of milder cases, this figure is likely to be more than half a million.

Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, has responded to the Food Standard Agency's survey.

He said it's unacceptable that we're still seeing such high and rising levels of campylobacter in chicken.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published the latest results from its the first nine-months of its year-long survey into the presence of campylobacter in raw chickens.

Campylobacter is the biggest cause of food poisoning in the UK. The FSA found that almost three quarters of poultry tested positive for the bug.

• 19% of chickens tested positive for campylobacter within the highest band of contamination (the highest level of infection being more than 1,000 colony forming unites per gram.)
• 73% of chickens tested positive for the presence of campylobacter.
• 7% of packaging tested positive for the presence of campylobacter. Only three out of more than 3,000 samples of packaging tested positive at the highest band of contamination.

They have tested more than 3,000 samples of fresh whole chilled chicken and packaging so far, as part of their year-long investigation.

The latest figures showing the extent of food poisoning bug Campylobacter among shop-bought chicken will be revealed today.

The Food Standards Authority will publish the results this morning.

Campylobacter, which grows in the guts of chickens, is killed through cooking but is the most common cause of food poisoning in the UK with some 280,000 people affected every year.

Last year the FSA named individual retailers for the first time, showing Asda to have the highest number of chickens contaminated with campylobacter and Tesco the least.