Institute of Food Technologists Releases Report on Antimicrobial Resistance

June 28, 2006 — 

The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) has released its fourth Expert Report entitled Antimicrobial Resistance: Implications for the Food System.

The IFT, a not-for-profit international scientific society of food science and technology professionals founded in 1939, assembled an internationally renowned panel of experts to consider the issue of antimicrobial resistance as it relates to the food industry. The panel examined the concern that the use of antimicrobials in food production, manufacturing, and elsewhere may lead to the emergence of foodborne pathogens that are resistant to antimicrobials, thus compromising the ability to subsequently control them, whether in production agriculture, food processing, or human medicine. Their findings are summarized in the report released on June 26, 2006.

The panel's findings indicate that eliminating antimicrobials from food animal production may have little positive impact on resistant bacteria of concern to human health. This opinion is supported by the experience observed internationally when sub-therapeutic antimicrobials have been withdrawn resulting in increased animal diseases and a subsequent increase in therapeutic antimicrobial use. Further, this elimination of certain antibiotics by the European Union has not been shown to have reduced the prevalence of some antibiotic-resistant strains affecting human medicine. Quite the opposite, resistance increased among some pathogens according to the report.

"Prior human exposure to antibiotics is the greatest factor for acquiring an infection with antibiotic-resistant bacteria," says Michael P. Doyle, Ph.D., chairman of the IFT expert panel, microbiologist and food safety expert.

The report cites concerns that new antibiotics for use in livestock are not being produced at rate fast enough to keep pace with the development of resistant bacteria. The panel also finds that antibiotic treatments used in the production of animals for food can benefit public health by reducing from within the livestock the pathogens that cause human illness.

Source:
Institute of Food Technologists