FEATURE SAFE TO EAT?


Safe to eat? F


OOD RELATES TO our budgets, our wellbeing, health and, just as importantly, it makes us what we are. It sustains our living tissues and informs our identities.


We are, of course, what we eat. In this sense, it is hard not to come to the conclusion that we are, in part, chicken. Fifty-two billion chickens are slaughtered for consumption globally every year. Chicken is the protein source of choice for an increasing number of people. For the world’s main religions, it is considered ‘clean’ and in the global north, white meat seems to offer health benefits, suits modern palates and is relatively cheap. And chicken production is expanding globally as large corporations seek to tap rapidly growing and urbanising protein markets. This healthy and clean image and the


expectation of value for money arose in part from the expertise of mid-twentieth century market innovations in the UK and US that helped to make a highly perishable product into something that could be sold safely and in quantity. The logistics of breeding, the placement of chicks on farms, raising and ‘harvesting’ of fully grown chickens, the post- slaughter packaging and cooling, and delivery in the right numbers and conditions for processors and retailers, made chicken a perfect mass consumer food in the latter decades of the 20th century. And yet, in recent months, the food we eat has come, once again, to be a matter for concern and analysis, particularly if that food includes meat, fish or poultry. The horsemeat scandal in 2013 drew attention to food adulteration within the


Fifty-two billion chickens are slaughtered for consumption


globally every year


Food safety is in the news, but is the answer simply better regulation and law enforcement or do we need to think again about the conditions under which the food we eat is produced? Steve Hinchliffe, John Allen and Stephanie Lavau explain why chickens suggest an answer


shadowy portion of the production chain called ‘processing’. More recently, this concern over the integrity of meat-based products has been re-joined by concerns over contamination of the food we eat with food-borne diseases. It’s a serious matter. The UK’s Food Standards Agency estimated that these food-borne diseases cost the UK economy an estimated £1.5 billion annually. The most recent food-borne bug of this nature


to hit the headlines in tabloids and broadsheets alike is Campylobacter, a bacteria that is regarded as the main cause of food poisoning in the UK and, in more severe cases, is responsible for over


“ Campylobacter is developing


resistance to some of the common anti-microbial drugs


20,000 hospitalisations and over 100 deaths a year. It’s a nasty bug that has emerged as an issue in the last few decades and now has a worldwide distribution. It is most often associated with poultry, and its relatively recent rise up the food risk agenda correlates with the rise of chicken as a staple part of many people’s diets. Around 65 per cent of raw chicken sold in the UK is thought to be infected with the bug – a high strike rate that is only offset by the reassurance that careful handling and proper cooking of chicken will remove the risk of poisoning. Nevertheless, and to add to the problems, Campylobacter is developing resistance to some of the common anti-microbial drugs that are used to treat the gastroenteritis that can result from infection. In the press, attention has focused on the


‘accidents’ that can occur along the food chain and that raise the likelihood of bacterial contamination of the parts of the birds that are destined for the table. Carcasses and viscera on the factory floor and breaches of strict hygiene standards along the food chain may, it seems, go unreported and are kept from consumers. Worrying though these breaches are, the inevitable focus by supermarkets on cleaning up the food chain and the very use of the term contamination may paper over some of the key drivers that make Campylobacter and other recently emerging infections more rather than less common. A focus on mishaps and the negligent,


purposeful or inadvertent corruption of an otherwise sound product seem to suggest a social


22 SOCIETY NOW AUTUMN 2014 ”


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