The Food Standards Agency has said that 70% of fresh chickens sold in shops are contaminated with the Campylobacter bacteria, the biggest cause of food poisoning in the UK.

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.

The results come from the first two months of a year-long study into the presence of Campylobacter in chickens, running from February 2014 to February 2015. It is due to test 4,000 samples of whole chickens bought from UK retail outlets and smaller independent stores and butchers.

Retailers have reacted quickly to tackle the bacteria, although any progress is not expected to be seen in subsequent reports rather than the first two months’ of data.

Marks & Spencer and its supplier, 2 Sisters Food Group, have recently developed a five-point plan, an integrated programme of interventions along the food chain to reduce levels of Campylobacter. Meanwhile, Asda and its supplier, Faccenda, have committed to an innovative new steam technology (SonoSteam) that has shown promising results in tests and is now being installed at the Faccenda factory for full scale, in line trials.

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