You may worry about E.coli, salmonella and listeria contamination in your chicken, beef and pork. Now, scientists are warning of an overlooked bacteria that’s resistant to antibiotics and may be in the meat sold in your grocery store.
American researchers out of George Washington University say that meat samples taken from nine major grocery stores tested positive for a bacteria called Klebsiella pneumoniae.
“This study is the first to suggest that consumers can be exposed to potentially dangerous Klebsiella from contaminated meat,” lead author Dr. Lance Price, an environmental and occupational health professor, said in a university statement.
“The U.S. government monitors food for only a limited number of bacterial species, but this study shows that focusing on the ‘usual suspects’ may not capture the full scope of foodborne pathogens,” Price said.
READ MORE: Are food-borne illnesses, recalls on the rise in Canada?
Salmonella, listeria and campylobacter – among other forms of bacteria – trigger millions of cases of food poisoning every year. Price and his team say klebsiella ought to be on health officials’ radar, too.
The team looked at turkey, chicken and pork products sold in Arizona grocery stores in 2012. They also studied the urine and blood samples of local residents who battled food poisoning at the same time. (While nine major grocery store chains were singled out in the study, the researchers say that the meat was produced outside of the state. These products could be sold anywhere in the United States.)
Turns out, 47 per cent of the 508 meat products they collected tested positive for klebsiella. Many of the strains of the bacteria were even antibiotic resistant. Price also found klebsiella in another 10 per cent of the 1,728 germs taken from the patients who got sick.
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Using DNA sequencing to compare the bacteria from the meat products to the germs in the sick patients, they found that isolated pairs were nearly identical. To be clear, the researchers say that doesn’t definitely mean their bouts of illness came from contaminated meat.
Experts say that klebsiella is typically found in our intestines and picked up from our daily environment and person-to-person contact. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that it’s been tied to pneumonia, bloodstream infections, wound or surgical site infections and meningitis.
Price is hoping that the study would put klebsiella on the map as a concern for consumers and food inspection officials.
“Now we have another drug resistant pathogen in the food supply, underscoring the public health concern regarding antibiotic use in food animal production,” he said.
READ MORE: Food products recalled over listeria and E. coli concerns
His full findings were published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Read the study here.
The USDA isn’t screening for klebsiella, Price says. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency did not yet provide comment to Global News on Friday afternoon.
Right now, Canada is entering the height of recalls and food-borne illneses, according to Dr. Rick Holley, a food microbiologist at the University of Winnipeg. Cases of undeclared allergens and listeria make up the bulk of food that’s recalled and subsequently investigated.
READ MORE: UBC researchers find antibiotic-resistant E. coli on local produce
“Outbreaks occur from now, around the end of May, through to the end of August in the greatest quantity. If we make pronouncements about the number of recalls in the winter and forecast for the rest of the year, it’s incorrect because the largest numbers always occur in the summer,” he told Global News.
Over the past few years, undeclared allergens made up about 40 per cent of all recalls due to unlisted ingredients or product mislabelling. Microbial contaminations – the cases of listeria, E. coli and salmonella, for example – make up another 30 per cent, says Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, a professor at the University of Guelph’s Food Institute.
This year, from Jan. 1 to May 14, the CFIA issued 155 recalls. In 2014, there were 714, followed by 467 in 2013 and 595 in 2012.
carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
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