It seems like, at least in the United Kingdom, the largest causes of food poisoning's from chickens, as a shocking study has recently revealed that almost three quarters of all poultry sold within the biggest supermarkets in the country are infected with the bacteria most commonly associated with food poisoning.
The food poisoning from chicken discovery comes from fresh shop-bought chickens, as a government department in the country studied which foods contained campylobacter, a curved bacteria mostly behind food poisonings, which causes symptoms such as diarrhea, stomach pains and cramps, fever, general unwellness and even leading up to health problems in the long term such as irritable bowel syndrome, reactive arthritis or even death, according to BBC.
The Mirror reports that the original food poisoning from chicken study came from the UK's Food Standards Agency, which focused on the levels of campylobacter contamination of whole fresh chickens as well as their package.
Metro reports that the food poisoning from chicken study surveyed the country's top food retailers to see whether they achieved the goal of the survey: reducing the presence of campylobacter in their poultry in the year-long survey.
Over 4,000 samples of chickens and their packaging were tested for the year-long study on poisoning from chicken, between major supermarket chains all the way down to butchers and smaller independent stores - and the results are staggering.
The first three quarters of the survey show that the rate of contamination altogether is currently "halted" at 73 percent since February, but it rose from 70 percent in November and, amazingly, from 59 percent in August.
Out of the biggest supermarket chains operating in the country, Asda was the one with the highest incidence of contaminated chicken, while grocery retailer Tesco is the only supermarket that fell below the industry average.
"I want to challenge those retailers who haven't yet demonstrated the impact that M&S, Morrisons, the Co-op and Waitrose are having on reducing campylobacter on chickens on their shelves," said FSA director Steve Wearne about the poisoning from chicken, according to The Daily Mail. "We expect all retailers and processors to be achieving the reductions we have seen in these retailers' figures - that's the only way we will meet the target we all signed up to."
