Food Poisoning Bug Found in Majority of UK Supermarket Chicken

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has found nearly two-thirds of chicken sold in supermarkets carry bugs that cause most cases of food poisoning in Britain.

Nearly 65.2% of all fresh chicken sold in supermarkets across the country is contaminated with campylobacter bacteria, the agency said.

Of the surveyed 3,274 chicken samples, the FSA found strains of the bug resistant to antibiotics which has risen from 48% in 2001 to 87% last year.

An estimated 440,000 people fall ill and 80 die each year after becoming infected, it said.

Countries such as New Zealand have reduced campylobacter contamination by disinfecting chicken meat with chlorine washes before it reaches the shops but the method is banned in the EU.