When I showed up in Australia and started shopping at my local stores – as you do without a car – I noticed the whole chickens were leaking all kinds of bacterial crap.

I spoke with the manager and said, in the U.S., they have additional plastic bags in the meat section and antibacterial wipes.

He said, that’s a great idea, I’ll bring it up at our fortnightly food safety meeting.

The company decided not to do anything because the wipes would cost half-a-cent each.

Other customers I’ve chatted with say they grab a plastic bag from the produce section to further enclose their chicken.

UK professor, Chris Elliott, who led the official inquiry into the horsemeat scandal, says supermarkets are reluctant to bring in changes that could reduce potentially fatal infections from chicken because of the cost.

Food safety versus economics.