Facepalm-inducing chicken cooking messages from FSA

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Ben Chapman

I don’t know exactly how much it costs to produce a video and put on a massive media campaign in the U.K..

That’s really a question for the folks at McCann-Erickson or Holloway Harris. tumblr_mo5rk6sgpd1qf6r9co2_5001

A rudimentary calculation leads me to believe that the UK FSA spent at least a couple of million pounds on production, media buying and message placement for their current chicken hero (not to be confused with chicken gyro) campaign (below, exactly as shown).

Roughly equivalent to the cost of 300,000 digital tip-sensitive thermometers.

The very tool that they must not think that U.K. households have.

Because they never mention temperatures.

And go with the increasingly frustrating – and not science based – steaming hot, no pink meat and clear juices suggestion.

Maybe investing in thermometers instead of commercials is a better approach to the Campy issue.

Shame on the Brits: Why bad food safety advice for safe chicken?

Posted on May 19, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Maybe there’s no tip-sensitive digital thermometers in the UK, maybe they’re not trying, maybe they just think they’re colonially better.

The taxpayer-funded UK Food Standards Agency is going to have another go at Food Safety Week, focusing on Campylobacter in chicken.

Up to a third of the UK population could contract food poisoning from campylobacter during their lifetime, according to new figures released by FSA.

The figures are based on the current infection rates of more than a quarter of a million people per year. Campylobacter is most frequently found on raw poultry and is the biggest cause of food poisoning in the UK. The FSA has released the figures to mark the start of 2015’s Food Safety Week and the launch of the ‘Chicken Challenge’ – its call to the whole food chain, from industry to consumers, to do their bit to halve the number of campylobacter food poisoning cases by the end of 2015.

Nina Purcell, director at the FSA, said in order to reduce Campylobacter illnesses, “check chicken is cooked properly until it’s steaming hot throughout with no pink meat and the juices run clear.”

Worse, the UK Institute of Food Research swallowed this line whole, and said, “check chicken is cooked properly until it’s steaming hot throughout with no pink meat and the juices run clear.”

This is chickenshit, and scientifically invalid.

The U.S., Canada, and now Australia, recommend the only way to ensure poultry and other foods are safely cooked, is to use a tip-sensitive digital thermometer. Color is a lousy indicator.

The Brit bureaurtards, and especially the supposedly science-based Institute of Food Research, should be ashamed.

Way to look after sick people: UK hospital gets lousy food safety rating

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Food hygiene levels at Burnley General Hospital have been criticised by the Food Standards Agency – resulting in health chiefs being told that major improvement is necessary.

The catering premises of the hospital were inspected on March 27th by Burnley Council, which routinely inspects restaurants, take-aways and organisations that serve food to the public, on behalf of the FSA.

The FSA’s “Food Hygiene Rating” marks premises on a score of 0 to 5, with 5 being the best. Burnley General Hospital received a rating of 1, which states major improvement is necessary.

Burnley Council confirmed its Environmental Health team carried out a routine food hygiene inspection at Burnley General Hospital at the end of March and there was a follow-up visit a few days later.

UK supermarkets block efforts to tackle Campylobacter

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Government can’t do much to hold food producers accountable, but consumers can. That’s why microbial food safety should be marketed at retail, so consumers can vote with their dollars (or pounds).

The UK Food Standards Agency has declared that supermarkets are blocking efforts to tackle Campylobacter, which is found in up to 79 per cent of raw birds on sale.

Levels are dangerously high in 19 per cent of chickens and the agency has demanded this figure should be below 10 per cent by year’s end.

It says however that Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Waitrose and the Co-op are failing to help. Only Marks & Spencer is giving updates on its plans and progress in tackling campylobacter.

Professor Paul Wiles of the FSA said the industry’s response had been ‘unacceptable’.

Chief executive Catherine Brown said supermarkets had ‘pushed back’ against providing information and claimed the stores were unhappy over the FSA’s publication of campylobacter league tables.

To date, only M&S has given the FSA details of its comprehensive plan to tackle campylobacter, which involves changes on farms and in slaughterhouses.

Does food safety inspection disclosure work in the UK? Sortof

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Douglas Powell

The UK Food Standards Agency reports:

The evaluation was commissioned with the Policy Studies Institute in 2011 and ran until mid-2014. It explored the impact of the FHRS and the FHIS on local authorities, consumers, businesses, food hygiene compliance and the incidence of foodborne disease. The evaluation and other research findings have been discussed by the FSA Board today.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland businesses are rated from 0 – 5, with 0 being the lowest rating and 5 being the highest. Businesses rated with a 3 or above are considered to be generally satisfactory or better. The FSA recommends consumers choose to eat in these ‘compliant’ establishments.

These final reports provide evidence that the FHRS had a positive impact on business compliance levels. These showed that there was a significant increase in ‘broad compliance’ (equivalent to ratings of 3 to 5) in the first year, and a significant increase in ‘full compliance’ (rating of 5) in the second year in local authority areas after the FHRS was introduced, compared with areas where the scheme was not yet operating. There was also a significant decrease in the proportion of businesses with very poor levels of compliance in the first two years after launch.

For Scotland, although the general pattern was the same for FHIS, the changes in compliance levels were not statistically significant.

The reports also include findings on consumer views about the scheme and provide some interesting insights. For example, those using the schemes said they were more likely to refer to hygiene information when in an unfamiliar location, or eating with vulnerable people or for special occasions when planning meals out at Christmas or Valentine’s Day.

UK horse meat slaughterhouse sentenced, new food crime unit

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Douglas Powell

The Food Standards Agency has welcomed the conclusion of the first prosecution brought as a result of the investigation into the horse meat incident in 2013.

Peter Boddy was today fined £8000 at Southwark Crown Court after he admitted failing to comply with food traceability regulations. He had admitted to selling horses for meat but failed to keep proper records to show who bought them. David Moss was given a four-months suspended prison sentence for falsifying an invoice. They were each asked to pay costs of more than £10,000.

FSA continues to support ongoing investigations as well as announcing today Andy Morling was named the Head of the Food Crime Unit.

Andy has extensive experience in intelligence and investigations, having spent the majority of his career working in these areas for HM Revenue & Customs, the Serious Fraud Office, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, and latterly the National Crime Agency, where he was a Senior Intelligence Lead.

The Food Crime Unit was established at the end of last year. During its first phase the Unit is focusing on building intelligence and evidence of the risks and the nature of food fraud and food crime in the UK. The unit exchanges intelligence and priorities at local, regional and national levels with a range of enforcement partners.

It’s not just chicken but UK wants piping hot bang for its intervention dollar: Campy results released

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Douglas Powell

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has today published the latest set of results from its year-long survey of campylobacter on fresh chickens. Campylobacter is a food bug mainly found on raw poultry and is the biggest cause of food poisoning in the UK.

The results are published for the first time as Official Statistics and the full report can be found via the link on this page. Cumulative results for samples taken between February and November 2014 have now been published, including results presented by major retailer.

The results to date show:

19% of chickens tested positive for campylobacter within the highest band of contamination.*

73% of chickens tested positive for the presence of campylobacter.

7% of packaging tested positive for the presence of campylobacter. Only three out of more than 3,000 samples of packaging tested positive at the highest band of contamination.

*More than 1,000 colony forming units per gram (>1,000 cfu/g). These units indicate the degree of contamination on each sample.

More than 3,000 samples of fresh whole chilled chickens and packaging have now been tested. Data continue to show variations between the retailers but none is meeting the target for reducing campylobacter (see table below).

The FSA’s 12-month survey, running from February 2014 to February 2015, will test around 4,000 samples of whole chickens bought from UK retail outlets and smaller independent stores and butchers. The full set of results is expected to be published in May.

The FSA has welcomed the publication by M&S of a case-study showing the results from the retailer’s recently implemented five-point intervention plan to reduce campylobacter on its chickens. The preliminary results published by M&S indicate a significant reduction in the number of the most highly contaminated birds.

Steve Wearne, FSA Director of Policy, said: ‘We now know it is possible to make positive inroads in the reduction of campylobacter. Figures released today by M&S show that their intervention plan has resulted in fewer contaminated chickens on sale in their stores. If one retailer can achieve this campylobacter reduction through systematic interventions then others can, and should.

‘Our survey is putting pressure on retailers to work with poultry processors to do more to tackle campylobacter. We want the industry to reduce the number of the most highly contaminated chickens as we know this will have the greatest impact on public health.

‘Campylobacter is killed by thorough cooking, but it should not be left to consumers to manage the risk.’

Is M&S Marks and Spencer or something else?

Retailer	Number of samples	% skin samples positive for campylobacter (95% confidence interval)	% skin samples >1,000 cfu/g campylobacter (95% confidence interval)	% pack samples positive for campylobacter (95% confidence interval)
Asda	491	78.9 (75.2 – 82.4)	31.1 (27.0 – 35.2)	13.0 (10.1 – 16.1)
Co-op	274	75.6 (70.2 – 80.6)	16.4 (12.3 – 20.9)	4.4 (2.1 – 7.0)
M&S	103	72.2 (63.0 – 80.7)	20.7 (13.0 – 29.1)	3.8 (0.8 – 8.1)
Morrison’s	271	76.2 (71.4 – 80.9)	22.9 (18.0 – 28.0)	13.3 (9.5 – 17.4)
Sainsbury’s	451	69.6 (65.4 – 73.7)	14.3 (11.2 – 17.6)	4.0 (2.3 – 6.0)
Tesco	925	68.2 (65.3 – 71.1)	12.3 (10.2 – 14.4)	4.1 (2.9 -5.4)
Waitrose	96	71.7 (62.1 – 80.5)	15.6 (8.5 – 23.7)	6.2 (2.1 – 11.7)
Others [1]	450	76.9 (72.9 – 80.7)	23.2 (19.4 – 27.2)	6.8 (4.6 – 9.2)
Total	3,061	72.9 (71.4 -74.5)	18.9 (17.5 – 20.3)	6.8 (5.9 – 7.7)

[1] The ‘Others’ category includes supermarkets where the market share was deemed small using the 2010 Kantar data: eg Lidl, Aldi, Iceland, plus convenience stores, independents, butchers etc.

UK supermarkets named and shamed over Campylobacter on chicken contamination

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Douglas Powell

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published the cumulative results from the first two quarters of its year-long survey of campylobacter on fresh chickens.

Individual results by major retailer have also been published.

Retailers aren’t happy.

One of the companies that has helped develop a way to flash freeze the surface of birds to kill campylobacter bacteria after slaughter, Bernard Matthews, said that retailers had been resistant to the extra cost, which is about 4-5p per bird.

However, the Co-op, Marks & Spencer, Asda and Sainsbury’s all told the Guardian they were supporting the trials of technology which rapidly chills or steams the surface of a chicken to significantly reduce levels of campylobacter.

Tesco said it would be helping to fund a full-scale trial of rapid chill technology with one of its suppliers from January to test feasibility on a commercial scale.

Andrew Large, chief executive of the British Poultry Council, which represents the largest producers and processors, said the industry was focusing on about 10 measures that looked promising, but he warned that there was “no silver bullet” to end campylobacter contamination.

The results to date show:

18% of chickens tested positive for campylobacter above the highest level of contamination

70% of chickens tested positive for the presence of campylobacter

6% of packaging tested positive for the presence of campylobacter with only one sample at the highest level of contamination (>1,000 cfu/g)

* Above 1,000 colony forming units per gram (>1,000 cfu/g). These units indicate the degree of contamination on each sample.

In total, 1,995 samples of fresh whole chilled chickens have now been tested, with packaging also tested for most of these samples. Data show variations between retailers but none are meeting the end-of-production target for reducing campylobacter.

This 12-month survey, running from February 2014 to February 2015, will test 4,000 samples of whole chickens bought from UK retail outlets and smaller independent stores and butchers.

Campylobacter is killed by thorough cooking; however it is the most common form of food poisoning in the UK, affecting an estimated 280,000 people a year. Poultry is the source of the majority of these cases.

But-just-cook-it doesn’t cut it and fails to account for cross-contamination.

In response, a number of retailers have introduced ‘roast in the bag’ chickens which help limit cross-contamination by minimizing the handling of the raw chicken in the home.

The FSA advises that the data for individual retailers have to be interpreted carefully. Confidence intervals are given for each retailer and the ‘others’ category. These show the likely range of the results allowing for the number of samples taken.

At this half-way stage in the survey the results show, taking the confidence intervals into account, that Tesco is the only one of the main retailers which has a lower incidence of chicken contaminated with campylobacter at the highest level (>1,000 cfu/g), compared to the industry average. Asda is the only main retailer which has a higher incidence of chicken that is contaminated by campylobacter at the highest level, compared to the industry average. However, the results suggest that none of the retailers is achieving the joint industry end-of-production target for reducing campylobacter.

And what FSA chicken advice would be complete without a recommendation to “make sure chicken is steaming hot all the way through before serving. Cut in to the thickest part of the meat and check that it is steaming hot with no pink meat and that the juices run clear.”

This is ridiculous advice from a supposedly science-based agency: use a tip-sensitive digital thermometer.

Meanwhile, The Guardian revealed this week that Tim Smith, the former boss of the FSA who left the regulator to become a director of Tesco, is said to have contacted a senior official in the Department of Health in June to warn that the FSA’s plans could provoke a major food scare, in an apparent breach of the terms approved by David Cameron for his move to industry.

And Tim Lang, a professor of food policy at London’s City University, told The Guardian the results are schocking and that “public should refuse to buy poultry until this is sorted out. This is a public health scandal easily on a par to those of the 1980s and 1990s and reminds me of the outrage over food adulteration and contamination in the mid 19th century. Have we really sunk back to that level?”

Dear British public, be outraged, act, withhold your money until you can have confidence in what you consume. This may not be orthodox public health strategy but it is definitely what history shows works when standards are as dire as these results show them to be.

Must be UK: 7 Cambridgeshire restaurants and takeaways score lowest ‘zero’ rating

Posted on November 24, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Seven establishments in Cambridgeshire have received a zero rating for their standards of food hygiene – the worst possible score.

The Food Standards Agency zero rating indicates that urgent improvement is necessary and it is used to indicate how closely businesses comply with food hygiene law.

Inspectors of zero-rated Spring Restaurant, in Mill Road, Cambridge, found “there were no handwashing soap or towels near the wash basin” and that “a large number of mouse bait boxes under the work surface” indicated a previous mouse problem.

But it’s trendy: 5 kids sick in UK linked to raw milk

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Douglas Powell

The food watchdog has issued a warning about the dangers of giving unpasteurised milk to children after five youngsters were taken to hospital with E.coli poisoning.

The unpasteurised milk has become trendy among celebrity food writers and other advocates of unprocessed ‘raw food,’ who claim it is both tastier and healthier.

However, consumers are putting themselves at risk because the milk is not heat treated to remove dangerous bugs.

The UK Food Standards Agency said there have been incidents on three farms selling raw milk in recent weeks which led to E. coli poisoning in five children aged one to 12 and one adult aged 28.

The watchdog has now suspended sales of raw cows’ drinking milk and any product made from the milk, including cheese, at all three farms.

In a resounding show of statistical idiocy, Shane Holland, of campaigning group Slow Food UK, said: ‘Data from the US show that raw milk is many thousands of times less likely to give you food poisoning than other commonly eaten foods not deemed “risky” by the FSA.’

No.

Another supporter of raw milk is food writer Tom Parker Bowles who has described it as ‘rich, bounteous and fulsome.’

No.

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