The results for the first quarter of testing, from July to September 2015, show a decrease in the number of birds with the highest level of contamination from the same months last year. These most heavily contaminated birds are the focus of the current target agreed by industry, which is equivalent to no more than 7% of chickens at retail having the highest levels of contamination. Research has shown that reducing the proportion of birds in this category will have the biggest positive impact on public health.
The new data shows 15% of chickens tested positive for the highest level of contamination, down from 22% in July to September 2014. Campylobacter was present on 76% of chicken samples, down from 83% in the same months of last year.
The results for the first quarter show:
- 15% of chickens tested positive for campylobacter within the highest band of contamination*
- 76% of chickens tested positive for the presence of campylobacter
- 0.3% of packaging tested positive at the highest band of contamination
- 6% 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.
In this first quarter, 1,032 samples of fresh whole chilled UK-produced chickens and packaging have been tested. The chickens were bought from large UK retail outlets and smaller independent stores and butchers. The new survey commenced sampling in July 2015.
The FSA has been testing chickens for campylobacter since February 2014 and publishing the results as part of its campaign to bring together the whole food chain to tackle the problem. Campylobacter is the most common cause of food poisoning in the UK, making an estimated 280,000 people ill every year.
As with the previous survey, the data shows variations between the retailers. Testing of chickens from Co-op and Waitrose show both retailers have made the most significant reductions in the proportion of the chickens they sell that are most highly-contaminated.
All results below are taken from the Official Statistics report for the survey which can be found at the link below. This report gives a full explanation of the results and background to the methodology.
The FSA advises that the data for individual retailers have to be interpreted carefully. Confidence intervals are given for each retailer and the 'others' category. These show the likely range of the results allowing for the number of samples taken. The 95% confidence intervals means that we would expect the true prevalence to fall within the lower and upper confidence limits 95% of the time.
|
Retailer
|
Number of
samples
|
% skin samples positive for campylobacter
|
% skin samples
over 1000 cfu/g campylobacter
|
% packaging samples positive for campylobacter
|
|
Aldi
|
99
|
76.8 (67.2 - 84.7)
|
9.1 (4.2 - 16.6)
|
3.0 (0.6 - 8.6)
|
|
Asda
|
102
|
76.5 (67.3 - 84.5)
|
23.5 (15.7 - 33.0)
|
8.8 (4.1 - 16.1)
|
|
Co-op
|
106
|
72.6 (62.8 - 80.7)
|
4.7 (1.5 - 10.7)
|
4.7 (1.5 - 10.7)
|
|
Lidl
|
101
|
65.3 (56.0 - 75.1)
|
11.9 (6.3 - 19.8)
|
7.9 (3.5 - 15.0)
|
|
M&S
|
104
|
82.7 (74.0 - 89.4)
|
18.3 (11.4 - 27.1)
|
1.0 (0.0 - 5.2)
|
|
Morrisons
|
109
|
86.2 (78.3 - 92.1)
|
25.7 (17.8 - 34.9)
|
14.7 (8.6 - 22.7)
|
|
Sainsbury's
|
108
|
80.4 (71.8 - 87.5)
|
17.8 (11.0 - 26.3)
|
5.6 (2.1 - 11.7)
|
|
Tesco
|
110
|
76.4 (67.3 - 83.9)
|
10.0 (5.1 - 17.2)
|
1.8 (0.2 - 6.4)
|
|
Waitrose
|
98
|
59.2 (48.6 - 68.5)
|
4.1 (1.1 - 10.1)
|
9.2 (4.3 - 16.7)
|
|
Others**
|
95
|
71.6 (62.0 - 80.8)
|
18.0 (10.5 - 26.3)
|
9.6 (4.2 - 15.9)
|
|
Total
|
1,032
|
76.3 (73.3 - 79.2)
|
14.9 (12.5 - 17.4)
|
6.4 (4.9 - 8.0)
|
**The ‘Others’ category includes supermarkets where the market share was deemed small using the 2010 Kantar data: eg Iceland, plus convenience stores, independents, butchers etc.
A microbiological survey of Campylobacter contamination in fresh whole UK-produced chilled chickens at retail sale
Appendix 6.2a: Raw data Year 2 survey Quarters 1-3