17 April 2008
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) says that the growing use of antimicrobial agents in food could be damaging human resistance to bacteria and other microbes.
In a report published by EFSA's panel on biological hazards (Biohaz), the agency suggests that the use of antimicrobial agents in animals plants and food production contributes to a growing, diverse range of resistant bacteria and of bacteria-borne resistant genes that can be passed on to humans through food.
Antimicrobial resistance of bacteria is a growing concern as antimicrobials become less effective in fighting human infections. This coincides with a rise in bacterial resistance to antimicrobials in animal populations. Resistant Salmonella and Campylobacter involved in human disease are mostly spread through food. The principal foods carrying such antimicrobial resistant bacteria are poultry meat, eggs, pork or beef. Contamination during preparation, handling and processing of fresh food of plant origin, such as salads, is also of concern.
The Panel identified several instances in which food may become a vehicle for transmitting bacteria with antimicrobial resistance, to humans:
- transfer of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria directly to humans from contaminated food originating from animals carrying resistant bacteria, which can colonise or infect a human being after ingestion;
- ingestion of antimicrobial resistant bacteria on fresh produce from land recently irrigated with water contaminated by farm slurry or municipal sewage containing such bacteria;
- transfer of antimicrobial resistance to the natural flora of the human gut from resistant bacteria on ingested food of both animal and non-animal origin, contaminated during the handling and preparation process;
The Panel recommended that these potential contamination routes and the control measures currently in place be reviewed in light of the most recent scientific data.
The Panel also said that bacteria deliberately introduced into the food and feed chain for manufacturing and preservation processes, such as fermentation cultures, and also probiotics, have on occasion exhibited antimicrobial resistance and should also be considered as a possible route for the transfer of antimicrobial resistance through food.