Store Bought Meat - Is It Safe?

By Author: Almeat
Total Articles: 83
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Store bought meat is always safe in many aspects. Despite the many reports and speculations going on in the media that store bought meat contains bacteria strains that are resistant to antibiotics, this product is safe to health. Any type of meat may contain these strains of bacteria. It is the duty of the consumer to prepare and cook the meat properly to ensure that it does not pose other health risks. To ensure that its reputation to the public is not damaged, any meat store must adhere to the principles of high quality and good hygiene.
There is a report going on in the media based on analysis of the Environmental Working Group (EWG). According to this report, the raw ground turkey contained 81% of bacteria strains resistant to antibiotics. 69% of raw pork chops, 55% of raw ground beef, and 39% of raw chicken parts were also found to contain similar strains of bacteria. Because of these reports, many people feared visiting their favorite fresh food store. The stated that the Environmental Working Group research found that 53% of the raw chicken samples had Escherichia Coli (E. coli), a microbe which normally inhabits ...
... feces and may cause pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and diarrhea.
The EWG research further found that there is rapid increase of antibiotic resistance by Salmonella is rapidly increasing fast. This conclusion is based on the fact that earlier in 2002 had found that 50% of the salmonella microbes were by then resistant to antibiotics. The recent findings that 74% of these microbes were resistant to drugs in 2011 led them to the conclusion.
So, what has caused increase in the levels of superbug in the store bought meat? According to EWG, the leading cause is the increase in use of antibiotics by the US factory farms which produce most of these animals that are raised for food in the United States. The producers of industrial livestock routinely give antibiotics to their healthy animals so as to get them ready for slaughtering faster. These animals may also give antibiotics for prevention of infection in the stressful, crowded and in most cases unsanitary conditions of living.
Pharmaceutical makers are partly to blame for this condition. The EWG reports says that they sold high quantities of antibiotics that were intended for use on the animals poised for slaughtering for the production of meat. The efforts by the FDA to reduce antibiotic resistance are voluntary guidance documents but not regulations with force of the law. According to EWG, consumers can reduce exposure to these bacteria strains by ensuring that they purchase farm meat which is raised without antibiotics.
It also recommended intake reduction of the intake of store bough meat but this is wrong. You do not have to take large quantities of infected meat so as to get sick. What you need to do is to ensure that you purchase meat or poultry from trusted meat store. You can read the various fresh food store reviews online to find out which one observes high degree of hygiene. If you consume fish, you should also ensure that you buy it from trusted fish store.