UK supermarkets, struggling with deflation and falling sales, received a new blow today as a Food Standards Agency report said no national chain is meeting targets for a potentially fatal bacteria in fresh chickens. Tests conducted by the watchdog in the six months through August found that more than 70 per cent of birds contained campylobacter, which can cause serious or fatal diseases.
Walmart's Asda came out worst, with 78 per cent of chickens testing positive, the FSA said today on its website. Tesco fared best at 64 per cent, it said.
“The results suggest that none of the retailers is achieving the joint industry end-of-production target for reducing campylobacter,” the government-backed watchdog said.
The FSA’s report comes toward the end of a difficult year for the UK supermarket industry as expansion by discounters fuels price deflation. The grocery market is declining for the first time since records began two decades ago, researcher Kantar Worldpanel said last week. Last year, UK supermarkets dropped some suppliers and took measures to improve food safety after some products were found to contain horse meat.
The FSA is halfway through 12 months of campylobacter testing. About 18 per cent of the 1,995 chickens tested through August contained the highest levels of the bacteria, it said. Asda was the only one of the main supermarkets to have a higher incidence of contamination at the highest level, compared with the industry average, the watchdog said.
News by Bloomberg, edited by ESM
