News & Updates
Latest Campylobacter Levels
The top nine UK food retailers latest testing results (April to June 2019) on campylobacter contamination in UK-produced fresh whole chickens have been published.
Across these major retailers, 3.6% of chickens on average tested positive for the highest level of campylobacter contamination.
The full results from April to June 2019 can be found in the table below:
|
Contamination Levels (colony forming units per gram) |
April - June 2018 | July - September 2018 | October - December 2018 | January - March 2019 | April - June 2019 |
| cfu/g less than 10 | 60.6% | 58.8% | 63.1% | 55.4% | 59% |
| cfu/g 10-99 | 23.3% | 26.7% | 22.3% | 25.3% | 25.3% |
| cfu/g 100-1000 | 12.5% | 11% | 11.4% | 15.8% | 12.1% |
| cfu/g over 1000 | 3.7% | 3.5% | 3.1% | 3.5% | 3.6% |
The risk of getting ill from handling and cooking chicken is low if good hygiene and cooking advice is followed.
You can read more information of how you can prevent getting campylobacter food poisoning on our fact sheet.
