The salmonella & E.coli horror heading our way
Shock tests on American food that could end up in UK supermarkets
AN investigation into US meat found up to 14% of pork and poultry tested had salmonella – around six times higher than levels found in the UK.
The shock findings of Channel 4’s Dispatches will spark fresh fears over a trade deal with the US, which could see cheap American meat flood into the UK.
There are fears too about the use of hormones and antibiotics in US food.
Dispatches lays bare the shocking reality of US food standards.
Professor Lance Price, who is in the middle of a five-year study of American food standards, said the level of bacterial contamination in its supermarket meat is “unacceptable”.
He explained: “With salmonella you’re going to be sick for a few days, but if you have any kind of compromised immune system they [the bacteria] can get into your blood and kill you.” On top of this, E. coli was found in more than 60% of pork, 80% of chicken products and 90% of turkey products. Around 70% of beef also tested positive.
All meat tested was for shops and supermarkets.
Prof Price added: “E.coli is an indicator of faecal contamination, so most of the meat is contaminated with faeces, and the faeces has dangerous pathogens.”
He went on: “The industry has been very successful in fighting any kind of regulations here [in the US].”
The rate at which antibiotics are given to livestock in the US is also five times higher per kilo than in the UK.
This has given rise to fears that it could breed antibiotic resistant bacteria, which could stop life- saving drugs working. To make matters worse, US meat producers use six antibiotics that are classed by the World Health Organisation as “critically important” to human medicine.
And, shockingly, Prof Price discovered that 45% of bacteria found on American retail meat are resistant to at least one antibiotic.
The show also looks at the use of growth hormones which the US continues to use in farming despite them being banned in Europe.
One drug, ractopamine, is fed to pigs to boost growth and increase muscle mass. But the drug has resulted in more than 200,000 reports of adverse impacts on pigs. It was banned in the UK and EU in 1996.
If a trade deal is struck, UK farmers could be forced to adopt US farming practises in order to compete. The head of the National Farmers Union, Minette Batters, added: “The US don’t have those fundamental rules that we have here on welfare and environmental protection.
“If you allow imports that don’t have to be produced to anywhere near [UK] standards, it will decimate British agriculture. I don’t see how we’d compete.”
On the use of ractopamine and growth hormones the US Food and Drug Administration said: “The FDA approves these drugs only after [it is] shown that treated animals are safe to eat, the drugs are safe for the animal and do not harm the environment in accordance with US laws.”
US officials inspect meat, poultry and egg exports to ensure they are safe.
Channel 4 Dispatches: Dirty Secrets of American Food: Coming to a Supermarket Near You?, tonight, 8pm.
The industry has fought off any regulation
PROF LANCE PRICE ON US FOOD INDUSTRY