CONSUMERS WILL not be greatly reassured by a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) report this week. It found that almost all poultry carcasses (98 per cent) slaughtered in Irish plants contained some level of campylobacter. This bacterium has replaced salmonella as the primary cause of food-borne illnesses, where people who eat contaminated chickens – which have been undercooked – risk infection and possibly acute gastroenteritis.
The EFSA is concerned by Europe’s high rate of contamination, where four out of five chickens analysed had the bug. A puzzling feature of the survey is the wide variation in contamination levels in different countries – as low as 5 per cent in Norway but almost 100 per cent in Ireland.
In 2008, 1,758 cases of campylobacteriosis – the illness caused by the bacterium – were reported here. This is some four times the incidence of salmonella. The EFSA study complements a similar survey from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) on another aspect of the same problem: the packaging and retail display of chickens in shops and supermarkets. That study has found that 13 per cent of the external surface of chicken packaging and 11 per cent of retail display cabinets were contaminated with campylobacter.
The health threat posed by the bacteria can be minimised through basic precautions to avoid infection: by cooking poultry meat thoroughly and by preventing cross-contamination between raw poultry and read-to-eat food. The latter can easily occur where contaminated meat juices leak out when the packaging of raw chicken is damaged.
The FSAI, the food industry and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, are examining how best to reduce the human health risk that campylobacter presents. One measure favoured by the FSAI – whose job is to ensure high standards of food safety and hygiene are upheld – is the introduction of leak-proof packaging to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.
Specifically, it has recommended that retailers should either source chicken products from producers that use leak-proof packaging or else provide their customers with bags to ensure that no leakage occurs.
The FSAI – having identified a clear health hazard and prescribed a voluntary solution – should closely monitor how retailers and producers react. And if necessary, the authority should press for legislation to enforce that higher food safety standard if its advice is not heeded and acted on.