Sainsbury’s chickens rule the roost

CHICKENS from Sainsbury’s have fewer gutbusting bacteria than their supermarket rivals tests have revealed.

The retail giant has done best among all major stores in official tests looking for a bacteria that can cause food poisoning.

In a result that might surprise some, M&S chickens had the most bacteria.

The Food Standards Agency has published the latest results of an ongoing survey looking at high levels of camplobacter in supermarket chickens.

Campylobacter is the leading cause of food poisoning in the UK and makes 280,000 people ill each year.

Any chicken with more than 1,000 ‘colony forming units’ of the bacteria per gram of skin (cfu/g) is considered to have high levels of campylobacter.

A total of 1,492 chickens were tested across supermarkets and other outlets, such as local butchers, between August and December 2016.

Of the nine major retailers - Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose - it was Sainsbury’s chickens that performed best.

Only 2.6% of chickens tested in Sainsbury’s stores had 1,000 cfu/g of campylobacter or more.

Morrisons (3.3%) was next, followed by Waitrose (5.2%), Tesco (5.7%), Asda (6.0%), Co-op (6.1%), Aldi (6.7) and Lidl (6.9%).

M&S performed worst, with 9.5% of the stores’ chickens having at least 1,000 cfu/g of campylobacter.

A word of warning came with results as the FSA pointed out the relatively small sample numbers meant the figures should be viewed with caution.

It also said that all chickens were at risk of being contaminated with the bacteria, meaning it should always be handled with caution and cooked safely.

The nine named retailers in the report are those with more than 4% of the UK chicken market share.