Rapid surface chilling (RSC) had been proved to significantly cut campylobacter infections on the skin of poultry, said Bernard Matthews’ group technical director Jeremy Hall. But retailers continued to drag their feet on the use of the technique, due to fears the extra cost of up to 4–5p a bird would dent sales, he claimed.
“The British Retail Consortium [BRC] … seems to continue to kick the issue a long way down the road,” Hall told our sister title Food Manufacture magazine.
“The Food Standards Agency [FSA] Board and its chief executive and directors have met all parties on several occasions to move the process forward but despite five months of meetings, no progress has been made.
‘No one is willing to help the industry’
All retailers pledged to support campylobacter reduction but no one is willing to help the industry to cover a cost that, although small, is greater than the current profit margins.”
Moreover, the FSA had sent all retailers a document stating RSC delivered at least a one log (90%) reduction in campylobacter, and that tests showed the meat did not go below -2°C, which ensured it remained in compliance with the EU poultry meat marketing regulations.
Also, a draft section regarding RSC for inclusion in the Meat Industry Guide for both in-plant vets and processors had been agreed.
Despite British Poultry Council members spending more than £2M on more than 70 interventions in farms or in slaughter plants to combat campylobacter, at present, only RSC is effective without adverse effects upon the colour or taste of the poultry, he added.
Hall said both consumers and retailers should share the costs of implementing RSC as soon as possible because “at present, a further 10 consumers die for each month of inaction”.
‘Yet to be installed full-scale in a processing plant’
But a BRC spokeswoman insisted the technique had yet to be proven and reliable cost estimates were unavailable. “The technique has yet to be installed full-scale in a processing plant, therefore it has not been possible to demonstrate that the trial results are reproducible under true processing conditions and also that it complies with legal restrictions on carcass temperature,” said the spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, last month, the FSA revealed the level of campylobacter contamination found in supermarket chickens had risen from 59% to at least 70%.
Consumer pressure group Which? said consumers were increasingly concerned about the levels of campylobacter in chicken sold by supermarkets, according to its research.
Commenting after the FSA, for the first time, named and shamed nine of the biggest supermarkets based on the testing results for campylobacter, Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, said: “There can be no shirking responsibility everyone involved in producing and selling chickens must act now and tell consumers what they're doing to make sure the chicken we eat is safe.”
The Which? research revealed that 61% of consumers were concerned at FSA data from August confirming six-in-10 fresh chickens were contaminated with campylobacter. These levels are now even higher. More than three-quarters (77%) of consumers thought that the levels were too high.