Campylobacter is the leading cause of bacterial food poisoning on the island of Ireland (IOI) with 3,772 cases reported in 2015 (Health Protection Surveillance Centre 2016, Public Health Agency 2016). Poultry is the main food associated with Campylobacter food poisoning.
Reducing levels of Campylobacter on poultry products by 1 log has been estimated to decrease human risk by between 50% and 90% (European Food Safety Authority, 2011). There are a number of processing methods that can be applied to poultry to reduce the overall level of Campylobacter contamination, however, the consumer acceptability of these methods is unknown.
Hence, safefood commissioned a research project to investigate the consumer acceptance of poultry decontamination methods on the IOI. The research project was led by University College Dublin and aimed to gain an understanding of the acceptability of new and existing decontamination methods in poultry processing. These included methods currently in use and authorised for use in the European Union. The reported efficacy of the decontamination methods was also looked at, through data gathering in focus groups with industry stakeholders and in scientific literature.
To ascertain consumers’ understanding of the problem of Campylobacter contamination in poultry, both focus groups and telephone surveys were conducted to determine attitudes to present and potential interventions, and identify barriers to consumer acceptance of interventions and how acceptability might be improved.
The final results should help to inform policy makers of the challenges faced by industry and consumers. The key findings of this project were:
- There is little awareness of Campylobacter among consumers.
- Consumers have no knowledge of how bacteria enter the poultry supply chain, or of potential interventions to control bacteria.
- Consumers on the IOI place their trust in retailers to sell them safe food.
- A consumer’s reaction to any decontamination process is strongly influenced by the vocabulary used to describe it.
- Consumers from the IOI show a preference for what they perceive as “natural” and non-invasive decontamination processes.
- Irradiation and organic and chemical washes are considered invasive.
- Forced air chilling ranks is the most acceptable intervention followed by crust freezing, steam ultrasound and cold plasma.
- Chemical washes are the least acceptable decontamination method.
- 67% of respondents would like to see information on the product label about treatments used in the processing plant to kill bacteria.
You can see the full report on safefood.eu.
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