Could the bacteria become resistant?

So far, no. Strains already resistant to antibiotics died just as readily as fully susceptible ones. When the team repeatedly exposed one strain to the light across 15 laboratory rounds — an attempt to force resistance to evolve — tolerance did not increase.

Dr. Aidan Taylor of the University of Reading, lead author of the study, said: "Campylobacter is a genuinely nasty bug, and its sheer abundance in the food chain, combined with rising antibiotic resistance, makes it a really difficult problem to tackle."

"What's exciting about this light-based approach is that it doesn't rely on chemicals or antibiotics at all, so it sidesteps the resistance problem entirely," Taylor said. "We've shown it works against a wide range of real-world strains taken directly from U.K. poultry, including the multidrug-resistant strains that worry us most, and we can't find any evidence that resistance could evolve."

He added: "That combination of broad efficacy and durability is what makes this such a promising option for cutting contamination before chicken ever reaches someone's kitchen."

How big could the impact be?

The researchers estimate that if the technique reduced contamination on chicken carcasses by a factor of 100, the share of highly contaminated carcasses reaching retail could drop from about 1 in 10 to 1 in 50.

Because VB-PDI relies on simple, low-power LEDs with a long lifespan and minimal running costs, the team believes it could also offer an affordable option for poultry producers in low- and middle-income countries, where food safety infrastructure is often limited.

The APHA surveillance program gave the researchers access to an unusually detailed picture of Campylobacter strains circulating in U.K. poultry, allowing them to test the technology against a genuinely diverse set of bacteria rather than laboratory strains alone. Earlier work by the same team had shown that blue light outperformed chlorine treatment against specific bacterial strains, and uncovered the molecular reasons for Campylobacter's sensitivity to violet-blue light.

What happens before it reaches supermarkets?

Plenty. The current results come from laboratory experiments on bacterial strains, not from trials on real meat. Dr. Samuel Connelly of APHA, who co-led the research, said: "The consistent results observed across multiple species and resistance profiles are highly encouraging. While further evaluation using contaminated meat samples is required, the simplicity and adaptability of this technology suggest that it could be implemented at various stages of the food production process."

"Such application has the potential to reduce the prevalence of Campylobacter within the food chain and, consequently, contribute to a reduction in the incidence of foodborne illness," Connelly said.

The next step, according to the researchers, is trials on naturally contaminated poultry carcasses in real processing settings. Only then can anyone judge whether a bank of blue LEDs can genuinely deliver in the noisy, fast-moving environment of a commercial slaughterhouse. For now, the laboratory evidence is striking — but it remains preliminary until it survives contact with actual chicken.