Campylobacter is the most common cause of food poisoning in the UK and is frequently associated with raw chicken. Food Standards Scotland (FSS) works in partnership with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to tackle Campylobacter, and has been publishing results from an FSA survey on the amounts of contamination on fresh chickens bought from shops and supermarkets across the UK. The way the FSA has conducted testing for Campylobacter in retail chicken (see Current note 50/0903 at http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/ewr/redirect.aspx?id=67125) has been to measure the amount of the bacteria on the neck skin – the most highly contaminated area of skin.
The survey was based on measuring the amount of bacteria on the neck skin of the chicken, which is the most heavily contaminated part of the bird. In the drive to reduce the levels of contamination, the industry has started to remove the neck skin from whole fresh chickens before they are placed on supermarket shelves. This is good news for the consumer but means that the FSA is unable to measure the levels of Campylobacter in the same way as before. It has therefore taken the decision to temporarily suspend the survey until a new protocol can be developed which provides a more consistent way of determining Campylobacter levels on retail chicken. It hopes to be able to restart sampling in the summer. Additionally, in the longer-term, the FSA will be asking industry to conduct its own testing and to publish results to an agreed set of FSA-prescribed and maintained standards.
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