An analysis by Consumer Reports found that most store-bought pork tested contained a bacterium that causes food poisoning. What's more, the samples were often resistant to antibiotics, the magazine said. (Sean Gallup / Getty Images)
A consumer Reports analysis of American pork purchased in grocery and specialty stores
has found that many samples contained high levels of a bacterium that causes
food poisoning. More worrisome, much of the bacteria samples were resistant to
antibiotics. According to the report, the magazine tested 148 samples of pork
chops and 50 samples of ground pork for harmful bacteria from a wide range of
stores in six American cities. (The stores themselves were not listed in the
report.)
The bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica was found in 69% of
samples. While Y. enterocolitica is less famous than contaminants such
as salmonella and E. coli, it sickens about 100,000 Americans a year,
many of whom are children. The magazine found that ground pork was more likely
than pork chops to harbor the bacterium. Most troubling is that Consumer
Reports says the majority of the bacteria samples it discovered were resistant
to at least one of the medically prescribed antibiotics it tested in the lab.
That’s probably because many farm animals are routinely fed antibiotics, a
practice the industry uses to keep animals healthy but is widely criticized
among public health professionals because of the potential for resistant
strains of bacteria to arise.
According to the magazine, there are a few things consumers can do to
avoid Y. enterocolitica in pork. The first is to ensure that all meat is
properly cooked — in the case of pork, to 145 degrees for whole pieces of meat
and 160 degrees for ground pork. In addition, consumers can check the meat for
a USDA label reading “No antibiotics used.”
Source: Chicago Tribune
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