The Food Standards Agency is Thursday to publish the results of its latest UK supermarket survey, testing for the deadly bug Campylobacter in chickens on sale.

dsA study led by Professor Dan Rigby at The University of Manchester found that almost three-quarters of consumers still do not associate the pathogen – the most common cause of food poisoning – with the chickens that they buy.

Professor Rigby said: “Following the headlines – one year ago – about the amount of contaminated chicken on supermarket shelves, we surveyed 900 people and found that only 28% associated Campylobacter with poultry and most still significantly underestimated the rate of contamination of chickens for sale in the UK .

“These findings show there is still a huge amount of work to be done to reduce the problem of Campylobacter infection; a problem which costs the UK around £900m annually.”

“There is still a huge amount of work to be done to reduce the problem of Campylobacter infection; a problem which costs the UK around £900m annually -Professor Dan Rigby”

Other key findings include:

One third of people interviewed shortly after last year’s headlines said they could not recall the story.

Less than half [40%] said they would change their behaviour at all as a result of the news, most citing changes to the way they handled or cooked chicken.

Just over a third of the sample correctly identified the retailer which had just been revealed as having the highest contamination rate.

Retailers are failing to promote the food safety benefits of ‘roast in the bag’ chickens.