The British regulator Food Standards Agency (FSA) warned consumers on Thursday from buying fresh chicken in two supermarket giants because of the deadly superbug campylobacter. It estimates 80 percent of fresh chicken from Morrisons, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s are tainted.

The Telegraph reports that in December, infection was down to 70 percent, but it rose again recently. However, the FSA clarifies that testing of the poultry was done between July and September, warmer months when the bacteria is more virulent. But compared to summer 2014, the figure is slightly down from 83 percent.

At Morrisons, the level of chicken tested positive for the bug was 86.2 percent. In Marks & Spencer, it was 82.7 percent and 80.5 percent in Sainsbury’s. Two retailers, The Co-operative and Waitrose passed the present industry target of maximum 7 percent contamination rate.

The FSA tested 1,032 samples during summer. Its benchmark was over 1,000 colony-forming units per gramme, reports The Guardian.

Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, points out that some retailers have significantly cut down levels of campylobacter which places pressure on others to explain why it did not meet the targets jointly agreed by retailers.

Eating chicken with the bug could result in vomiting and diaorrhea. In some cases, the patient could die. Campylobacter poisoning topped the list of foodborne ailments in Britain, and most often, victims ate chicken.

Although thorough cooking kills the superbug, nevertheless, 280,000 Brits become sick due to campylobacter, of which thousands need to be hospitalised and about 100 people die from its poisoning yearly.

For over 10 years, the FSA has been pushing the industry to clean up which led the regulator to name and shame the retailers. In 2014, when the FSA did that, sales of fresh chicken dipped by seven percent in the following months.

Steve Wearne, FSA director of policy, says, “It is good to see that some retailers are getting to grips with campylobacter. However, we want to see all of them pulling together to achieve real and lasting reductions.”

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