The Food Standards Agency has dropped the top nine retailers from its campylobacter survey to instead focus on smaller establishments, where the body feels improvements could be made.
Following discussions with the industry on an FSA initiative, the top nine retailers have agreed to publish their own campylobacter results on their consumer websites.
As a result of this arrangement, the nine major retailers won't be included in the FSA's annual survey tacking.
Campylobacter is the most common cause of food poisoning in the UK.
According to official figures, 6.5% of chickens tested positive for the highest level of contamination, carrying more than 1,000 colony forming units per gram (cfu/g).
This is down from 9.3%, for the same period last year.
The FSA has been testing chickens for campylobacter since February 2014 and publishing the results as part of its campaign to bring together the whole food chain to tackle the problem.
In light of significant progress made by the major retailers and producers in taking action to reduce campylobacter levels in their chicken, the FSA's strategy is now to focus effort on smaller establishments where further improvements could be made.
The increased focus on these suppliers will allow the improvements made by the larger chains to be extended across the whole supply chain.
The focus for the fourth year of the retail survey will therefore be on smaller retailers, independent traders and market stalls as these are more likely to be supplied by smaller processors.
Past SA research has shown that 76% of consumers want retailers to be more proactive in telling them what actions they are taking to reduce the campylobacter levels on the raw chicken they sell.
