Nearly 20 percent of the consignments of chicken and other poultry imported into Finland last year contained salmonella.

In the National Food Agency Finland inspections, salmonella was discovered in poultry consignments from Poland, Hungary, France, and Brazil.

In all, 54 poultry consignments were subjected to random inspections.

Salmonella was detected in nine of them, despite the fact that certificates written in the countries of origin confirmed that the shipments were free of the dreaded bacteria, the daily Maaseudun tulevaisuus reported on Monday.

According to senior inspector Taina Niskanen from the National Food Agency Finland, these spot-checks confirm that monitoring is needed.