19.04.2012

The Australian food safety watchdog Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has issued an official warning for people to take care when cooking chicken livers.

It follows outbreaks of Campylobacter food poisoning linked to dishes such as pâté, where poultry liver has been undercooked.

Information supplied by the Commonwealth Department of Health showed that outbreaks associated with poultry liver dishes have increase in frequency in recent years.

Data from OzFoodNet showed there had been seven outbreaks in Australia since 2000, but with six of those occurring since 2008.

The registered outbreaks were all linked to food prepared in restaurants and function centres, including two in Queensland, two in Tasmania, one in South Australia, one in New South Wales and one in Western Australia.

The suspected dishes included pan-fried duck liver, chicken liver pate, chicken liver parfait, and duck liver parfait. Inadequate cooking of the poultry liver dishes was believed to be a "significant contributing factor" to these outbreaks.

In its warning FSANZ said that, like other poultry meat, livers need to be cooked all the way through to kill bacteria that may be present - lightly frying the surface is not enough.  
FSANZ said recent surveys of raw chicken meat in Australia found campylobacter in more than 85 per cent of samples tested.