Join the chicken challenge

Pembrokeshire’s food safety officers are urging people to join the Chicken Challenge and take care when cooking poultry.

The warning comes as part of Food Safety Week which kicks off next Monday (May 18th).

To mark the annual event the Food Standards Agency has launched its Chicken Challenge offering advice on the safe way to prepare, cook and store chicken.

It hopes to halve campylobacter food poisoning rates by the end of this year.

The campaign follows a recent FSA, poll which found that almost three quarters (73%) of the population of Wales, England and Northern Ireland eat chicken every week.

However, the popular meat can also cause food poisoning if not cooked and handled properly.

The FSA estimate that about 280,000 cases of food poisoning a year can be traced to Campylobacter – a germ found mostly on raw chicken. It can’t be seen, smelt or tasted but if people are affected by it they won’t forget it! And, at its worst, campylobacter can kill or paralyse.

Campylobacter food poisoning usually develops a few days after eating contaminated food and leads to symptoms that include abdominal pain, severe diarrhoea and, sometimes, vomiting.

Some can have lasting effects for example irritable bowel syndrome, reactive arthritis and, in rare cases, Guillain-Barré syndrome – a serious condition of the nervous system.

As a result the FSA wants consumers and the food industry to take its Chicken Challenge and be extra careful when they cook and handle the meat.

It could mean that over a hundred thousand fewer people would get sick next year.

“Pembrokeshire’s food safety officers are backing the FSA campaign  throughout Food Safety Week and the rest of the year,” said Councillor Huw George, Cabinet Member for Environmental and Regulatory Services.

“They continue to inspect food businesses to ensure controls are in place to prevent campylobacter food poisoning and investigate cases of campylobacter in Pembrokeshire residents.”

The FSA is urging people to:

*Bag and store raw chicken separately from other food, covered and chilled on the bottom shelf of the fridge

*Not to wash raw chicken as it splashes germs

* Wash everything that’s touched raw chicken in soap and hot water – your hands and utensils

*Check chicken is cooked properly – no pink meat, steaming hot and the juices run clear

* To take the pledge and the chance to win some amazing prizes visit www.food.gov.uk/chickenchallenge

Find out more about the FSA’s Chicken Challenge at www.food.gov.uk/chickenchallenge