Brian Rudman: Dumbclucks dither as our poisonous chicken plague rages

Food poisoning is the great leveller. Whether you've been scoffing raw oysters at a $500-a-head banquet at Eden Park, or munching under-cooked chicken at a Westie barbecue, the final act is the same, retching into a plastic bucket while astride the porcelain throne.

What is different, though, is the reaction of officialdom.

Soon after the Eden Park mass-poisoning, Government officials banned imports of the suspect Korean oysters.

But in the case of the dodgy poultry, food and health authorities continue to sit by, although most of the raw chicken entering our kitchens is reportedly awash with infectious campylobacter bacteria.

At least the caterer in the gun over the oysters has had enough embarrassment to keep his head firmly down. But not the poultry industry. Its association president, Michael Brooks, doesn't even try to deny that his product is crawling with the nasty bacteria.

He just quibbles with the small print in the report from the University of Otago School of medicine and health which claims up to 90 per cent of fresh, raw chicken is contaminated.

Not true, he says. The contamination rate is more likely 30 to 40 per cent.

In other words, we have a one in three chance of buying poison-marinated fresh chicken from a New Zealand shop rather than the nine out of 10 chance predicted by the doctors.

If it was Russian roulette, most of us would think none of the odds was worth risking a shot to the head.

So why do the health authorities consider them acceptable? Why don't they ban the carrier of this disease, as they did the Korean oysters?

The industry and the authorities say all will be fine as long as we cook poultry well, wash the chopping board and knife thoroughly, and ensure no infected juices drop on to other foods.

In a perfect world they could be right, but that hasn't stopped New Zealand becoming the campylobacter capital of the world, with 15,550 reported cases in the year to May.

Of these, 871 were so severe that the victims ended up in hospital.

Otago researcher Dr Michael Baker believes up to 100,000 New Zealanders are stricken each year, half of them victims of chicken, "the cheap, dirty food of New Zealand".

All of which shows that instructions to wash up well and turn the heat to high are not enough. A report to the Food Safety Authority last year says the incidence of campylobacteriosis has risen steadily since it became notifiable in 1980.

It was now "the largest contributor to the economic costs of foodborne diseases in New Zealand".

The poultry industry and health officials say the link with chicken is difficult to prove, that you might have caught your gut rot from a glass of untreated stream water or from some dog excrement you happened to rub on your lips.

If that's so, why do they insist on thorough cooking and avoiding the dripping juices?

The Greens have been banging on about this for a long time. In May, before the Otago report came out, list MP Sue Kedgley attacked the Food Safety Authority for not upholding the Food Act requirement that no person shall sell any food that is contaminated, injurious to health or unfit for human consumption.

Why, she asked, was the Food Safety Authority allowing the sale of poultry it knew was likely to be contaminated with campylobacter?

After the Otago report, Food Safety Minister Annette King called for advice from officials, including, it seems, those at the Food Safety Authority, who have been as effective as headless chooks as the epidemic worsens. Like the poultry industry, they're waiting for the 100 per cent proof of a direct link.

But why wait? Isn't it enough that a large proportion of raw chicken sold in New Zealand is alive with harmful bacteria that comes from chicken excrement. It's a filthy extra that shouldn't be there even if you can, with care, cook it to death.

Washing the meat with a mix of salt and chlorine apparently helps, as does freezing it. Irradiation is good too, though the Greens won't be backing that suggestion.

Whatever solution the poultry industry comes up with, it needs to do it quickly. Perhaps a prosecution or two would concentrate the minds.