News & Updates

Campylobacter levels remain steady

The latest campylobacter testing results (January to March 2019) on contamination in UK-produced fresh whole chickens have been published by the top nine UK food retailers.

Across the retailers, an average 3.5% of chickens tested positive for the highest level of campylobacter contamination.

The full results from January 2018 to March 2019 can be found in the table below:

Contamination Levels (colony forming units per gram) January-March 2018 April-June 2018 July-September 2018 October-December 2018 January-March 2019
cfu/g less than 10 59.1% 60.6% 58.8% 63.1% 55.4%
cfu/g 10-99 23.9% 23.3% 26.7% 22.3% 25.3%
cfu/g 100-1000 13.2% 12.5% 11% 11.4% 15.8%
cfu/g over 1000 3.8% 3.7% 3.5% 3.1% 3.5%

The risk of getting ill from handling and cooking chicken is low if good hygiene and cooking advice is followed.

Find more information on preventing food poisoning in the latest blog from our Chief Scientific Advisor.