News & Updates
Campylobacter levels remain steady across the UK
The top 9 UK retailers have published their latest campylobacter testing results showing that the levels of contamination remain low. The figures covering sampling from January to March 2018 show that 3.8% of chickens tested positive for the highest level of campylobacter contamination, demonstrating that the action being taken by retailers to reduce campylobacter contamination on fresh chicken continues to make a positive impact.
The average overall percentage levels of campylobacter in the retailers’ data can be found in the table below:
| Months | Contamination levels (cfu/g)* | |||
| Less than 10 | 10-99 | 100-1000 | Over 1000 | |
| July - September 2017 | 48.7% | 28.3% | 18.4% | 4.6% |
| October - December 2017 | 57.7% | 22.0% | 16.7% | 3.6% |
| January - March 2018 | 59.1% | 23.9% | 13.2% | 3.8% |
We would like to remind people in Scotland that the risk of getting ill from handling and eating chickens is low providing you follow our good hygiene and cooking tips.
