15.06.2019
The top nine retailers across the UK have published their latest testing results on campylobacter contamination in UK-produced fresh whole chickens (covering samples tested from January to March 2019). The latest figures show that on average, across the major retailers, 3.5% of chickens tested positive for the highest level of contamination. These are the chickens carrying more than 1,000 colony forming units per gram (cfu/g) of campylobacter. Campylobacter levels have remained steady and are below the target of 7% at the highest level of contamination.
|
Contamination levels
|
Apr-June 2018
|
July-Sep 2018
|
Oct-Dec 2018
|
Jan-Mar 2019
|
|
cfu/g less than 10
|
60.6%
|
58.8%
|
63.1%
|
55.4%
|
|
cfu/g 10-99
|
23.3%
|
26.7%
|
22.3%
|
25.3%
|
|
cfu/g 100-1000
|
12.5%
|
11%
|
11.4%
|
15.8%
|
|
cfu/g over 1000
|
3.7%
|
3.5%
|
3.1%
|
3.5%
|