A leading public health expert is accusing the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) of not protecting consumers from contaminated fresh chicken meat.
By Jessica Hopkins of RNZ
Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago Michael Baker said the performance of MPI's food safety unit, New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS), had been "very poor".
He said the country not being close to eliminating campylobacter infection from raw chicken was a "regulatory failure".
In a press release this week, NZFS warned against washing uncooked chicken, while announcing a new goal to lower the campylobacter infection rate by 15% (from 76 to 65 cases per 100,000 people) by 2030.
NZFS deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle said many people incorrectly thought washing raw chicken made it safer to eat.
"In fact, washing chicken increases the risk of getting sick. That's because, when you rinse raw chicken under the tap, bacteria such as Campylobacter can be spread in water droplets onto sinks, benches, utensils and other foods around the kitchen."
But Baker said the onus should not be on the public.
"Putting out a media release telling consumers, 'Don't wash your chicken'. Is that it? They have to do better than that."
"There's a whole list of behaviours we'd have to change to make [raw chicken] even remotely safe in the kitchens of New Zealand. Even if you're very careful, you can still make mistakes.
"I think it's more responsible for our food safety regulator to put more effort into possibly not entirely eliminating but significantly reducing contamination of fresh chicken. We've got an industry that has huge sales of fresh chilled chicken, which is often contaminated, and that's what has caused this preventable foodborne epidemic."
Baker wanted MPI to require poultry producers to label how heavily contaminated their product was.
"Consumers can then say, I'm not so keen on buying that heavily contaminated fresh chicken. I'd rather buy the one that has got very low or no contamination. That would be one way of giving the market and good producers an incentive to get this right."
Baker said a 2018 study he co-authored found consumers had "huge gaps in their knowledge" about preparing chicken meat safely, including that a majority did not know it should not be washed.
His study recommended safety labels indicating that a product was contaminated with campylobacter.
"I think it's very reasonable to have a labelling requirement as we have on other hazardous goods and services."
He said contaminated fresh chicken meat caused an estimated 77% of human campylobacter infections, and resulted in upwards of 500 hospitalisations and tens of thousands of community illnesses each year.
Symptoms included stomach cramps, diarrhoea, and vomiting, which could last for a week or longer.
Baker said a Public Health Communication Centre (PHCC) analysis from 2025, which he was the lead author of, showed hospitalisation rates for campylobacter infection increased by almost 70% in 17 years.
"If you look at the numbers since when we had an independent regulator, I think that's a very robust indicator that we're not succeeding here."
He said the former New Zealand Food Safety Authority, which was amalgamated in 2010, was very successful.
"They introduced a big programme of work to try and cut down the contamination levels of fresh chicken leaving the processor, and it was one of the most successful programmes in the world. It halved the rate of human disease in just three months.
"But that's almost 20 years ago now, and since then, rates [of campylobacter infection from fresh chicken] have stayed very high by world standards. They may even be increasing at the moment based on the rise of hospitalisations."
But Arbuckle said between 2006 and 2020 reported rates of foodborne campylobacter infections had halved and that they had decreased by a further 20% since then.
He said its figures were based on public notifications of infections provided by the health system.
He said it was working with the Ministry of Health to "better understand the drivers behind changes in hospitalisation rates over time".
"It's notable that campylobacteriosis case rates are dropping, which suggests that there are other reasons behind some hospitalisations, such as people deciding to delay looking for medical care, changes in the way that people access primary health care, and changes in definitions of hospital care over time."
But Baker believed MPI was missing the mark as a food safety regulator.
"MPI has two very different briefs. One is to support the agriculture sector, which is great, and we all applaud that. But whether they can also at the same time be the regulator of food safety, I think their performance at the moment suggests that they shouldn't be.
"There are very few other infectious disease problems that are coming from just one source, one contaminated food. This problem can be ended very rapidly in New Zealand, and it is a choice."
Arbuckle said that while Food Safety welcomed changes that would contribute to reducing campylobacter infection rates, it was not convinced labels were necessary.
He said its 2023 Consumer Insights Survey indicated most consumers had a high level of awareness of the risks associated with raw chicken.
"We're not alone in our approach to labelling. Most other countries also do not require raw chicken to be labelled.
"Before making any changes to rules, we need to be sure that the benefits outweigh the costs. There's no evidence that labelling would have a significant benefit, and the costs, including to consumers, are not known."
He said the press release about its 'Skip the Wash' campaign Baker was referring to was just one way it was responding to the problem and educating consumers.
"NZFS has worked with supermarkets to ensure that this message also reaches consumers where they are buying raw chicken over the summer period, which is when we typically see a spike in case numbers.
"We know the increase in cases is partly due to more people gathering to eat and cook outdoors in warmer weather."
He said Food Safety had led changes to the way the industry processed poultry, including making changes to the equipment used and applying an antimicrobial wash.
He said campylobacter detected on chicken carcasses had also reduced from 52% of samples they tested in 2006 to 10.2% in 2024.
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