THOSE OTHER BACTERIA IN YOUR MEAT AND POULTRY

On the whole, the meat-eating public in America seems to have taken the recent bad news rather well - that there is likely to be dangerous Staph bacteria in about half of the meat or poultry they buy. Although, I did notice more buyers at the fish than the meat counter today at my favorite store. Maybe just my imagination. (By the way, I bought fish for dinner - wild, not farmed and it was delicious).

But everyone seems to be forgetting all the other studies of bacteria in U.S. meat and poultry and acting as though this was the first time disease-causing bacteria - or, Staph, had been found. Such other research has usually concluded that the large majority of U.S. meat carries at least some disease-causing bacteria. And naturally, the industry has always questioned the findings - just as the American Meat Institute did this month.

For instance, take the study by Consumer Reports of bacteria in chicken in late 2006. The methodology used seems to be very similar to the most recently reported one: taking samples of raw poultry sold in stores. Except this study was larger and covered 23 states. It concluded that 83 percent of the 525 chickens it tested were infected with Salmonella enteritidis, Campylobacter jejeuni, Listeria monocytogenes - or, Staphylococcus aureus (the recent headliner) bacteria.

In other words, bacteria in your meat or poultry is nothing new. Some of these bacteria - or their toxins - are much more resistant to freezing and heat than others. To my mind, what was most frightening about the recent study's findings is not the percentage of meat found to contain Staph, but that such a high percentage of the Staph - which can produce toxins that aren't affected by cooking - are resistant to many antibiotics.

TSF

WILL YOU GET SICK FROM THE STAPH IN YOUR MEAT?

So now we suspect that Staphyloccus aureus bacteria and their toxins could be hiding in half the beef, pork, chicken and turkey we eat in America (see earlier blogs). So why aren't meat eaters getting sick more often?

The U.S. federal authorities estimate that this bacteria is only responsible for about 3 percent of foodborne illness. The meat industry (represented by the American Meat Institute) naturally says it is even less - about 1 percent. (You can do a lot of creative stuff with statistics, and as always, you can find some study or other to back up your case).

In fact, at least a quarter of us walk around with Staph bacteria up our noses, in our mouth or on our skin. Mind you, it's more likely to be one of the less dangerous Staph like Staphylococcus albus, but Staphylococcus aureus is sometimes there too.

But what about this Staphylococcus aureus in meat and other foods you eat? Will it make you sick?

Whether you get sick or not, will depend on a number of factors, including: i) which type of toxins the Staph bacteria produce (see earlier post which explains that toxins are what make you ill - not the Staph bacteria themselves); ii) how much of these toxins you ingest; and iii) who you are.

First, not all Staph produce dangerous enterotoxins such as Staphylococcal enterotoxin Type A or B, and your body can cope with small amounts in your burger or fried chicken, if you don't eat too much (Yet another reason to cut back on the size of your meat portion!).

Finally, whether you get symptoms of food poisoning will depend on how susceptible you yourself are. As always, some people are more vulnerable than others - young children, older adults, people with serious illnesses. I also came across an interesting study of illnesses caused by Staph toxins which found that people under stress are more susceptible than normal.

So don't stress out too much about Staph in your meat. Often there won't be enough toxins to hurt you. Besides, any stress just could make you more susceptible!

TSF

MRSA BACTERIA IN U.S. MEAT?

Recently published findings about drug resistant bacteria in U.S. meat is raising hairs - and blood pressure - among consumers. Disease-causing bacteria in our food are bad enough, but when they are also resistant to antibiotics, then its really scary. How can we be treated if we catch them?

A study published in the reputable journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases on April 15 is the cause of the furror. Testing on beef, chicken, pork and turkey for sale in U.S. stores in cities of Chicago, Los Angeles. Washington, D.C., Fort Lauderdale in Florida, and Flagstaff in Arizona, found that about 47 percent of the meat was contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus . And, it found that over half of these bacteria were resistant to at least 3 kinds of antibiotics. Some were resistant to more. Reportedly, at least one meat sample contained MRSA.

It seems that genetic testing argues that the bacteria came from the animals themselves - not from handling or packaging or some other source. If you have read The Safe Food Handbook, you won't be surprised. You also won't be surprised that the bacteria are antibiotic resistant, since the book explains why such bacteria are on the increase in meat and farmed seafood.

Industrialized food production is to blame. The popular practice in the United States is to give food animals small doses of antibiotics on a regular basis to keep them from getting sick, and fatten them up faster. No, it is not to treat illness - this is strictly preventive. And, it is profitable for the meat and the pharmaceutical industries.

The United States is behind the European and many other industrialized countries in banning this dangerous over-use and misappropriate use of drugs. Yes, it may help to keep our meat and poultry cheap - which is the argument of the industry. But is it worth creating a huge risk for public health?

TSF

SALMONELLA IN CHICKEN: THE LATEST U.S. FINDINGS

While I was cooking breakfast and waiting for houseguests to get up this morning, I decided to check on how the U.S. was doing in terms of reducing Salmonella bacteria in raw meat and poultry. This sudden urge was motivated less by obsession with Salmonella bacteria at 5am in the morning than by the fact that the latest report on the topic from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) just happened to pop up in my morning's E-mail.

A little background: the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has been regularly testing for Salmonella bacteria in raw meat and poultry (carcasses and raw ground meat and poultry products) since 1997 (for large establishments) and 1998 for smaller ones. This regular testing for Salmonella is operating alongside one for E.coli bacteria and another for general fecal contamination of raw meat and poultry. So, you could say it is just one indicator of overall meat and poultry contamination in the U.S. But it is still an important one: Salmonella bacteria are fairly common in all our foods, and quite deadly, especially to children and older adults.

I won't go into details on the various categories and procedures used, but here are a few interesting 2010 facts about chicken that I dug up from the USDA/FSIS data (and please don't think that I am prejudiced against either chicken or small producers):

• Raw ground chicken is more likely to carry Salmonella than raw ground beef.
• Since the Jan.-March 2009 quarter to Oct.-Dec. 2010 quarter, the incidence of Salmonella in ground chicken has risen dramatically (from 13.1% to 22.8%).
• It has risen in ground beef too, but is much, much lower than in ground chicken (1.7% to 2.8% for those same periods. Compare this to the above).
• Broilers (young chicken) carcasses have also shown a big increase and the latest findings have shown that almost a tenth are contaminated with Salmonella.
• Ground turkey isn't as bad as ground chicken in terms of Salmonella (the latest findings show 9% to be contaminated, compared to 22.8% in ground chicken).
• Very small establishments producing ground chicken are twice as likely to have contaminated ground chicken as are large ones (45.5% compared to 22.6%). It is even worse in the case of broilers (38.3% compared to 3.7%).

Cook your chicken well and be careful handling it. We can't just rely on the industry and government to keep our food safe.

TSF