65% of UK chicken has food bug: Survey

LONDON: A common food bug that causes thousands of people to fall ill with diarrhoea and abdominal cramps is present in almost two-thirds of the chicken sold in Britain, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said yesterday.

A survey found campylobacter, which is responsible for about 55,000 cases of illness in Britain every year, on 65 percent of samples of chicken tested, with salmonella present in 6 percent.

"The continuing low levels of salmonella are encouraging, but it is disappointing that the levels of campylobacter remain high," said Andrew Wadge, FSA Director of Food Safety.