US rates of campylobacter infection are 10 times higher than in the UK.

The US records hundreds of poultry realted salmonella deaths a year; the UK has in recent years recorded none. In 2014, an investigation by the respected independent US non-profit organisation, Consumer Reports, found that 97 per cent of 300 chicken breasts it tested from across America contained harmful bacteria including Salmonella, campylobacter and E.Coli.

A 2013 study by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control - the US federal health protection agency - analysed outbreaks of foodborne illnesses between 1998 and 2008 and found that “more deaths were attributable to poultry than any other commodity”.

More than half of the samples in the Consumer Reports study contained faecal contaminants and a similar amount harboured at least one bacterium that was resistant to three or more commonly prescribed antibiotics.

A 2016 study by the UK’s Food Standards Agency found comparable levels of contamination in this country - half of chicken samples taken from retailers were infected with multi antibiotic-resistant campylobacter.

The latest figures from the FSA show that human cases of campylobacter confirmed by lab tests in the UK decreased 17 per cent in 2016.

One study found 95 finger “amputations” of workers that contaminated poultry production lines over a single year in American poultry processing, making it one of the most dangerous occupations in the US. Debbie Berkowitz, a former chief of staff at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), who now campaigns for employment rights, maintains that the industry is also exploitative: employees, her office found, were routinely denied basic rights, including toilet breaks. “Workers did not want to have to soil themselves,” she said. “So they wore diapers on the line.” To focus on the chlorination aspect at least detracts from the rights and welfare of low paid workers.

Going to work in "diapers" 4 🐔s sake

Posted By: Tombs on November 27th 2019 at 15:30:32

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