Stricter rules on Campylobacter have not yet led to a decrease in contamination based on figures from a German agency.
Almost a quarter of carcasses in the country had Campylobacter counts of more than 1,000 colony forming units per gram (cfu/g) in 2018, according to the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL).
The process hygiene criterion of no more than 1,000 cfu/g on broiler carcasses at slaughterhouse level was introduced from January 2018 across the EU to determine the presence of Campylobacter spp. in the poultry meat chain. The aim is to prevent poultry meat with high levels of Campylobacter per gram being sold. If high levels are detected, the food business must improve hygiene.
In 2017, prior to introduction of the legislation, 22.7 percent of carcasses in Germany exceeded the levels. In 2018, the rate remained virtually unchanged at 22.6 percent. BVL said ongoing zoonotic monitoring will show to what extent the introduced threshold leads to an improvement in the situation.
FoodWorld 