The Consumers Union report on the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in pork bought at retail is an example of “sensationalism” and its “ ‘science’ … wouldn’t stand up to even elementary scrutiny,” according to a statement released by the National Pork Producers Council, in response to CU’s report, released Tuesday.

In an article in its Consumer Reports magazine, CU reported the results of tests of 148 samples of meat from pork chops and 50 from ground pork. Yersinia enterocolitica was found in 69 percent of the tested samples. Salmonella, staphylococcus aureus, or listeria monocytogenes were found in 3 to 7 percent of samples. Additionally, 11 percent harbored enterococcus, which may indicate fecal contamination and may cause non-foodborne related infections such as urinary-tract infections.

In a separate test to determine the presence of ractopamine, Consumer Reports analyzed 240 additional pork products. That test found very low levels of ractopamine.

But Dr. Scott Hurd, former U.S. Department of Agriculture deputy undersecretary for food safety, criticized the organization for attempting to link antibiotics use in food animals with antibiotic resistance in humans in the NPPC’s release. In addition, the pork organization noted that Yersinia enterocolitica found by Consumers Union on some pork has more than 50 serotypes and several biotypes, only a few of which are pathogenic. Consumers Union either did not conduct, or chose not to report the results of, tests to determine if the bacteria it found were pathogenic.

“This report was obviously written to support Consumers Union’s claim that antibiotics use in food animal production is the major cause of antibiotic resistance, or treatment failures, in human medicine,” Hunt said in NPPC’s release. “The article and Consumers Union disregarded numerous peer-reviewed risk assessments that show any risk to human health from antibiotics use in food animals is negligible.

 

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