Campylobacter remains the biggest cause of foodborne illness in the UK with Food Standards Scotland (FSS) research showing that the majority of Scottish campylobacter cases are linked to a chicken source.
Today, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published the latest set of results from the second year of a UK-wide survey on campylobacter contamination levels on shop bought fresh chickens. The results from the 966 samples collected between October to December 2015 show a significant decrease (18.9% to 10.7%) in the number of birds with the highest level of contamination when compared to the same period last year.
The key findings from this quarter are:
10.7% of chickens tested positive for campylobacter within the highest band of contamination*
58.9% of chickens tested positive for the presence of campylobacter
0.1% of packaging tested positive at the highest band of contamination
5.7% of packaging tested positive for the presence of campylobacter
*More than 1,000 colony forming units per gram (cfu/g). These units indicate the degree of contamination on each sample
Geoff Ogle, Chief Executive of Food Standards Scotland said:
“FSS has committed in our first FSS strategy and corporate plan to ensure food is safe for the nation and a key element in achieving this will be to reduce campylobacter in Scottish produced chicken. We welcome the encouraging results reported today which show that real progress is being made, and FSS will continue to work with FSA and industry to pull together to deliver real and lasting reductions that will help to improve public health.”
FSS continues to advise Scottish consumers that chicken is safe to eat as long as good kitchen practice is followed to help avoid cross-contamination, and chicken is cooked thoroughly.
Further information on these results can be found here.