Food surveillance data highlight importance of adequate food preparation

Educating consumers that their food is not sterile and cooking accordingly can go a long way to reducing the rate of foodborne illness in this country.

David G. White, PhD, of the FDA, reviewed data from the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS), a joint collaboration between the FDA, the CDC and the Department of Agriculture that follows antibiotic resistance patterns in the nation’s food supply. White presented the data at the 2010 Annual Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance in Bethesda, Md.

The FDA has a number of provisions in place to monitor the food supply, and earlier today, FDA officials requested more money for food inspection. However, foodborne illness outbreaks in recent years — such as the outbreak from peanut butter from a plant in Georgia and the cookie dough outbreak during the summer of 2009 — demonstrated how easily one small contamination in a single plant can spread nationwide and affect thousands. The threat of foodborne illness has also been imported to the country, White said, noting that about 15% of the overall U.S. food supply is imported.

Since 2002, NARMS has tested more than 25,000 meat samples. As the rates of antimicrobial compounds have increased in agriculture, multidrug resistance has been more commonly found in veterinary sources.

Whether antimicrobial resistance use in agriculture has enhanced the distribution of resistant phenotypes in clinical settings is still being debated, White said, because resistance can spread through other methods, including direct contact and the environment. But foodborne bacteria that display resistance to antimicrobials that are critically important to human therapy — in particular, the fluoroquinolones and broad-spectrum cephalosporins — are worrisome and continuously monitored, he said.

White cited a study, whose results were published in the January issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, that provided strong support for the role of foodborne reservoirs as a mode of disseminating resistant Escherichia coli in community-associated urinary tract infections.

“Foodborne microrganisms are evolving,” White said. “It is important to recognize and respond to these new challenges; continue to develop new solutions and new technologies; and improve tracking, surveillance and food safety education to reduce illness.” – by Colleen Zacharyczuk

For more information:

White D. Paper or plastic? Bringing resistance home. Presented at: 2010 Annual Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance; Feb. 1-3, 2010; Bethesda, Md.