The Foods Standards Agency (FSA) has temporarily suspended its testing for campylobacter levels on chickens bought from shops and supermarkets.
Currently the FSA tests campylobacter levels by measuring the amount of the bug on the neck skin of the chicken, generally the most contaminated part of the bird. However the FSA has reported that a growing number of processors are removing the neck skin before the birds are put on supermarket shelves.
A statement made by the FSA said: “This is good news for the consumer because it reduces the amount of campylobacter on the bird, but it gives us a problem with our analyses.
“Given that chicken samples now contain varying amounts of neck skin, it makes it difficult for us to compare fairly one retailer with another and to give accurate comparisons with previous quarterly results.
“We have therefore decided to suspend the survey for the time being while we look again at what sort of testing we might do to provide clear information on the progress being made by retailers to tackle campylobacter.”
The FSA hopes to restart the sampling in the summer.
“We’re considering a number of options for amending our testing protocol so as to give a more consistent indication of the levels of the bug,” the FSA continued. “Additionally, in the longer-term, we will be asking industry to conduct their own testing and to publish their results to an agreed set of standards prescribed and maintained by us.”
Results of the second quarter of the survey, published in February, revealed that 11% of chickens tested positive for the highest level of contamination, down from 19% in October to December 2014.
The FSA will publish the results of the third quarter of the survey next month, however it will exclude a breakdown of individual retailers. The FSA will not be publishing a final quarter set of results within this survey.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
