According to reports, several foreign agencies jointly issued a report rating the use of antibiotics in meat and poultry by the 25 largest fast food companies in the United States. Several of the world’s well-known chain restaurants are at the lowest F level. It is also claimed that these restaurants have promised to purchase [antibiotic-free chicken] in the United States, while this is not the case in China.
At that time, the problem of antibiotics in meat products was pushed to the forefront again. Many people began to worry: Can they still eat meat with confidence?
Dr. Clove asked food safety experts to answer this question for you.
The rating in the report represents what?
First of all, it should be noted that the agencies that jointly issued these reports are not U.S. Government agencies, but some non-governmental organizations.
In this report, the use of antibiotics in meat and poultry by these fast food enterprises was scored according to grades:
- Grade A is not to say that antibiotics are not used, but for chicken [with antibiotics used by some people], these catering enterprises have clearly stated the purchase restriction ratio and announced these policies. Grade F is mainly due to the fact that these catering enterprises have not announced their antibiotic use policies in the meat and poultry supply chain. Or, the enterprise has formulated relevant policies but has not implemented them continuously.
Therefore, domestic media reports that some enterprises have promised to use [antibiotic-free meat] in the United States, but not in China are false news.
Because whether it is A or F, these enterprises will use antibiotics, but some promise not to use [human antibiotics] for their meat.
Then the question arises… … …
Why not let animals use [human antibiotics]?
In order to prevent the human body from developing drug resistance.
Antibiotics are also called antibacterial drugs. Antibiotics are great inventions that have saved countless lives. However, abuse of antibiotics will make bacteria develop drug resistance, and when corresponding antibiotics are used to treat diseases in the future, they will have no effect.
If an antibiotic is used in both animals and people, the drug resistance evolved by bacteria in animals may affect people and make people develop drug resistance.
In order to reduce the occurrence of drug resistance, when countries formulate policies and regulations, they all require that [human antibiotics] and [veterinary antibiotics] be separated as much as possible. However, in practice, due to considerations of cost, ease of use, safety and other aspects, the use of these two types of antibiotics may still overlap.
Meat without antibiotics is not necessarily good meat.
The main purpose of using antibiotics in animal breeding is to prevent animals from getting sick.
Due to our increasing demand for meat, we need to use a more advanced [centralized breeding] mode. However, high-density centralized breeding can easily lead to the spread of infectious animal diseases, even cause a large number of animal deaths and bring huge economic losses.
However, if people eat sick animal meat, they may also be infected with diseases.
People cannot always be healthy and animals will inevitably get sick. Therefore, the use of antibiotics is necessary in modern farming. The so-called [completely antibiotic-free] meat, eggs and milk are almost non-existent and not necessarily safer.
If antibiotics are not used at all, animals will die of illness without timely treatment. Do you eat such meat?
Reasonable use of antibiotics ensures the healthy growth of cultured animals, which is equivalent to ensuring the food safety of human beings.
The real harm of antibiotic residues lies in drug resistance.
[Antibiotic Residues] Sounds scary, but if there are more antibiotic residues, what really threatens us is not the residual antibiotics themselves, but the drug resistance of antibiotics.
The most direct manifestation of antibiotic resistance is that the existing antibiotics cannot work.
Over the past 90 years, antibiotics have become a good medicine for many diseases. Many diseases can be cured with a little antibiotics. However, the abuse of antibiotics leads to drug resistance of bacteria, and the existing antibiotics cannot be killed. The direct consequence is that there is no drug available for bacterial infection.
Imagine: If all antibiotics really fail and the wound is full of bacteria and difficult to heal, then a small appendix operation may be fatal.
Compared with the antibiotic residues in meat and poultry, what should be on guard is the abuse of antibiotics in the treatment of diseases.
If you are really worried about the problem of antibiotics, first raise your awareness, standardize and rationally use antibiotics, and never abuse them.
When used rationally, antibiotic residues are not terrible.
Animals that have used antibiotics do have antibiotic residues in their meat.
However, as long as it is used according to the requirements of safety standards and strictly abides by the regulations of withdrawal period, the residual amount of antibiotics is not enough to threaten human health.
Antibiotics are not used as you want. In order to ensure the safe use of antibiotics, countries all over the world have strict restrictions.
China also has its own regulations on approving antibacterial drugs to be used as veterinary drugs:
- Strict examination and approval before use: Before all antibiotics are approved, All of them must go through strict examination and approval procedures. Relevant pharmacy, safety and efficacy tests must be completed, After strict evaluation and examination, the production and use shall be approved. The use must be standardized: the so-called standardized use refers to the use of veterinary antibiotic products, which must be approved by the national veterinary administrative department, and must be used in strict accordance with the product labels and instructions, including: the use of animal objects, indications, usage and dosage, withdrawal period, etc.
Pay Attention to the Abuse of Antibiotics
Abuse of antibiotics is not only a problem in animal husbandry, but also in human medical treatment. For long-term consideration, the application of antibiotics in both aspects should be strictly controlled.
1. The use of antibiotics by animals should be strictly regulated.
Some antibiotics can improve the meat output rate of animals at low doses, which may be due to the fact that such animals are less sick, or it may affect the fermentation, digestion and absorption of feed by changing the structure of gastrointestinal flora of animals, thus improving the conversion rate of feed.
At present, China, the United States and other major animal husbandry countries are also allowed to use antibiotics that promote growth.
However, it is not that the more antibiotics are used, the more meat they get. Farmers (worldwide) may not know this, and relevant agencies should strictly control it.
2. Improve your understanding and don’t use antibiotics as anti-inflammatory drugs.
The problem of abuse of antibiotics in China is very serious. Some people take antibiotics whenever they have a cold and fever, which is totally unnecessary.
Medical workers should also use antibiotics more reasonably. If patients must be allowed to use antibiotics, they must not say that they are anti-inflammatory drugs in order to make patients feel at ease in taking drugs. This is easy to mislead patients and make them think they can eat as they want.