Figures released from Tesco have revealed a continued reduction in levels of Campylobacter in its fresh chicken.
According to the multiple retailer, it is on course to meet the target that it set itself last summer, which will deliver a reduction in the presence of Campylobacter at the highest level in at least 95% of chickens by 2017.
The latest data compiled by Tesco for the period of 19th October to 18th December 2015, has found that Campylobacter at the highest level has fallen to 7% in the final quarter of 2014/15, compared to almost 9% for the previous quarter.
Tesco’s group quality director, Tim Smith, said: “Providing high quality and safe food for our customers is always our absolute priority. It has long been our commitment to reduce levels of Campylobacter in our poultry and we are now seeing real progress at all stages of the supply chain and we are confident that we will meet our industry leading target next year.
“With 93% of our chickens now testing negative for the highest levels of campylobacter, our customers can be confident of the quality and safety of the poultry we sell in our stores. The latest results are testament to the hard work of our suppliers and clearly demonstrate our ambition to remain at the forefront of any developments to improve the quality and safety of our chicken.”
Tesco has introduced a number of interventions to help shoppers keep safe, including leak-proof packaging for all raw poultry. In 2014 the company also updated its chicken packaging to ensure food safety messaging was more prominent.
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.
