The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have announced a new strategy for the development of a research agenda for the reduction of Campylobacter in the UK food supply. The FSA has declared that Campylobacter is the single most important food safety issue facing the UK today. The bacteria is estimated to account for almost a third of all food poisoning cases in the UK – some 300,000 per year in England and Wales alone, 15,000 of which result in hospitalization. A 2009 FSA study found that 65 per cent of raw chicken in UK retail stores was contaminated with Campylobacter. Copies of the Research Program Plan and the 2009 Survey are attached below