Asda exposed as supermarket with 'dirtiest' chicken

Asda has been exposed as the supermarket with the highest proportion of chickens contaminated with dangerous bacteria that causes food poisoning.



In a damning report, the Food Standards Agency found 70 per cent of chickens sold at supermarkets were contained unacceptably high levels of campylobacteria.

At Asda the proportion rose to 78 per cent of the birds tested. The food watchdog warned that 28 per cent of Asda chickens contained highly-dangerous levels of the bacteria.

However, even poultry sold at more expensive supermarkets such as Waitrose and M&S were infected with the bug, which makes 280,000 people ill every year, killing 100.

Steve Wearne, director of policy at the FSA, said: "Wherever you buy chicken from you are at risk from this nasty bug."

He said tens of thousands of people were being made ill unnecessarily every year because retailers were doing too little to protect customers. He said supermarkets needed to take responsibility for "dozens" of annual deaths caused by the bacteria, which could be prevented.

The Cooperative ranked second worst among the retailers tested in the six-month period between February and July, with 73 per cent of birds testing positive for campylobacter. Tests at Waitrose, Morrison's, and Sainsbury's all showed results of 69 per cent. The full table is shown below.

Tesco was the only retailer where overall contamination levels were lower than the industry average, the report found.

Mr Wearne refused to comment when asked whether he would recommend boycotting Asda. "What I would do is make sure I cook [the chicken] properly," he said.

"These results show that the food industry, especially retailers, need to do more to reduce the amount of campylobacter on fresh chickens."

I always wear rubber gloves when handling fresh chicken. I wash the gloves with soap and hot water before taking them off to avoid cross-contamination. The scissors I use to cut the packaging are kept separate and sterilised with boiling water. Likewise the brush I use to baste the chicken and the carrier-bag I used to bring the chicken home is never used to carry food again.