British store-bought chickens deadly

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Results from a study by the U.K.'s Food Standards Agency (FSA) show that more than half of the chickens available in British supermarkets are contaminated with the dangerous Campylobacter bacteria, the Huffington Post reports.

The FSA study, running from February 2014 to February 2015, will test 4,000 samples of whole chickens bought from U.K. retail outlets and smaller independent stores and butchers. Results from the first six months show that 70 per cent of the chickens were contaminated with Campylobacter. In an online statement, FSA director of policy Steve Wearne said that "there is a long way to go before consumers are protected from this bug."

According to the Huffington Post, Campylobacter is the most common form of food poisoning in Britain and affects an estimated 280,000 people a year. But the FSA website says that the risk to the public is low so long as the meat is thoroughly cooked and preparation guidelines are properly followed.

Canadian stores have their own problems. A Radio-Canada investigative report found that some IGA stores in Quebec were relabelling chicken to extend their shelf life. One butcher – who asked to remain anonymous – told Radio-Canada that "to my knowledge, everyone is doing it … In all the stores I've worked at in my life, everyone did it.'' In Canada, this sort of relabelling is illegal. Alain Dumas, the Quebec spokesperson for Sobeys (which owns the IGA brand) told Radio-Canada that relabelling or repacking meat is "something we do not approve of." BF