Three quarters of fresh for sale chickens in butchers and supermarkets are contaminated by possibly dangerous food poisoning bugs called Campylobacter, based from the newest food safety test results conducted by FSA or Food Standards Agency.
Based on the information gathered by theguardian.com, the most horrible infectivity rates were seen in Asda, wherein eight out of ten birds tested affirmative to the food poisoning bugs and virtually 1/3 of fresh full chicken were seriously contaminated. Overall, they have the highest percentage of contaminated number of chicken at 78.9%, along with 31.1% showing the food poisoning bugs over the highest rate of contamination and 13% of positive packaging tested.
Poultry is the main source of the food poisoning bugs that is why FSA is urging the industry to improve their efforts to make certain chickens are bacteria-free once they hit the basket of shoppers. Major supermarkets should try harder in order to ascertain poultry is not contaminated as it reaches supermarket shelves. However, regardless of these safety precautions, major supermarkets do not reach target for decreasing campylobacter, causing food poisoning to about 280,000 people every year, according to independent.co.uk.
As an answer to this, the FSA did not think twice shaming and naming individual retailers after over a decade of pursuing the poultry industry to move and do their part of cleaning up. The industry pleaded hard to stop the FSA from publishing the results and ministers applied more pressure on the agency to back down from their plan, asserting that it would cause damage in the industry and food scarce to people. The FSA hence delayed their plan. However, since their latest food test results last November showed no betterment in the industry but rather cumulative positive results of food poisoning bugs to major supermarket chickens, FSA went ahead with its naming strategy. After which, sale of fresh whole chickens fall down by 7 percent. This is their last resort to get the industry moving.