It has been claimed that families are at risk due to a ‘price war’ stopping supermarkets from paying for precautions to lessen the risk of food poisoning from chicken.

A food expert and government advisor says that farms could reduce the threat of contamination to chicken if they cease a process called ‘thinning’.

However, he claims that supermarkets are unwilling to pay the around 10p per chicken to do this, resulting in a greater risk to consumers.

The thinning process involves farm workers periodically going into the chicken sheds to remove birds that reach or exceed slaughter weight.

According to research, every time a worker enters the sheds it leads to any campylobacter present in the flock and their excrement to spread around the other healthy birds.

The overall effect is that the amount of contaminated birds reaching supermarkets is larger.

Supermarkets use thinning because it allows them to fit more birds into each shed and helps to produce uniform size birds for the shelves.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) conducted research that found seven in ten birds sold to major supermarkets are contaminated. Close to one in five are contaminated at the highest level of risk.

Campylobacter is the UK’s biggest cause of food poisoning, causing around 280,000 human cases annually with an estimated 100 deaths.

Professor Chris Elliott led the official enquiry into the horsemeat scandal. He claims that supermarkets show reluctance to welcome changes that have the potential to reduce infections from chicken due to the cost.

He said the change is definitely worth paying for if it means the British public has access to safer food.

Professor Elliott added that eliminating the thinning process would definitely be a solution. It would cost 10p more per bird, but there is much reluctance from retailers at the moment because they are in the midst of a price war.

Some supermarkets, in particular Waitrose and Marks & Spencer, have stopped their farmers from employing thinning process for their whole birds. Asda are amongst other supermarkets running trials to assess the benefits of putting an end to thinning.