Dodgy chicken dossier due out on Thursday

[joe_bloggs*]

The FSA has been fighting a decade-long campaign to get supermarkets and the poultry industry to clean up their meat. A Guardian investigation into industry hygiene lapses earlier this year revealed that the majority of fresh supermarket chicken remains contaminated with the potentially lethal food poisoning bug campylobacter. Six in ten chickens were contaminated in anonymised FSA tests results released after a delay in August. The industry is now poised to receive the results of further tests covering peak season for the bug, due to be published on Thursday. These are likely to show even higher rates of contamination and will identify individual supermarkets and their scores.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/25/-sp-tesco-director-facing-questions-lobbying-government...

The former head of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), who went straight from his job as regulator to a lucrative role as technical director of Tesco, lobbied the government this summer about its plans to publish the official food poisoning contamination rates for supermarket chicken, the Guardian has been told.

Tim Smith is understood to have warned the Department of Health in June that FSA proposals for publishing results, which included naming and shaming individual supermarkets, could provoke a food scare and damage the industry"

Provoke a scare and damage the industry? Never mind making around 280,000 people ill each year and leading to around 100 deaths,the whole thing stinks-a bit like the chickens

[fallen-archie]

Campylobacter is killed by thorough cooking, the FSA said, if good kitchen practice is followed. The FSA said chicken is quite safe to eat as long as consumers take the following precautions:

Cover and chill raw chicken Cover raw chicken and store at the bottom of the fridge so juices cannot drip on to other foods and contaminate them with food poisoning bacteria such as campylobacter.

Don't wash raw chicken Cooking will kill any bacteria present, including campylobacter, while washing chicken can spread germs by splashing

Wash used utensils Thoroughly wash and clean all utensils, chopping boards and surfaces used to prepare raw chicken. Wash hands thoroughly with soap and warm water, after handling raw chicken. This helps stop the spread of campylobacter by avoiding cross contamination.

Cook chicken thoroughly Make sure chicken is steaming hot all the way through before serving. Cut in to the thickest part of the meat and check that it is steaming hot with no pink meat and that the juices run clear.

[cee-dee]

The bit about Pink meat can be misleading.

Depending on several factors, thoroughly cooked chicken can still be Pink.

[joe_bloggs*]

Asda was the worst-performing retailer, with 78% of its chickens taken to labs testing positive for campylobacter over the period, followed by Co-op (73%), and then Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, all on 69%, with Marks & Spencer showing an incidence of 67% and Tesco the best at 64%.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/27/dirty-chicken-scandal-campylobacter-eight-out-10-uk-bir...

"Shoppers could still protect themselves and their families by following advice on correctly handling, storing and cooking chickens, Wearne said. However, he stressed, this was not entirely up to them.

“It’s not all about consumers,” he said. “The industry needs to take steps to raise their game, to make strides towards reducing the burden of illness that campylobacter cause – 280,000 cases each year in the UK. More needs to be done".

I,ll have to go back to horsemeat

[cee-dee]

In the end, it's all down to the poor standard of handling and hygiene by the consumer.

[lambsy_uk]

Yeh I'm sure I've heard somewhere that we need to make sure we cook chicken properly! I also recall having to look both ways before crossing the road, clunk, clicke every trip and Charlie says don't talk to strangers.

[saasher2012]

It's not just the cooking of chicken, it's the preparation before, also the way you cool & store leftovers which is just as important.
Many cases of food poisoning are caused by this ignorance !.

[lambsy_uk]

Yes, and ignorance is no defence!

[saasher2012]

There has been plenty of advice given but it's of no use if people don't take notice!.

[ed_blackadder_1]

I am 54 and I was taught this in school, this is nothing new the germs have always been there. I have never washed a chicken in my life. I have also never had food poisoning.
Miat of what they are telling us is common sense. Obviously younger people either don't know or don't care .
Basic hygiene and cook the bloomin thing properly.
Yet another food scare to worry everyone.

[fallen-archie]

If the FSA have it their way many raw foods will increase in price substantially. They are pushing hard to get retailers to do so many things to bring down often naturally occurring bacteria but to impose the kind of traceability on products that would enable a small cube of Boursin to be traced back to the cow seven years after you've. Eaten it. Food safety is like health and safety, a self perpetuating business battering burden on society.We need both but they need to impose reasonable standards , proven to be of real benefit.