UK documentary on the dangerous levels of contamination on US meat

[octoberlib]

Link to tweet

?s=21


Tweet thread by Channel 4 Dispatches:

Now we’ve left the EU, the government is trying to do a trade deal with the US. @Dispatches can exclusively reveal dangerous levels of contamination in American meat that could soon be stocked in UK supermarkets. 1/



Between 12 & 14% of the pork & poultry samples tested have Salmonella, that’s about 6 times higher than levels in UK pork. According to preliminary results from Professor Lance Price who is in the middle of a 5year study looking at bacterial contamination in US retail meat. 2/

More than 60% of the pork products tested had E. coli on them, as did around 70% of beef products, 80% of chicken products, and more than 90% of turkey products. E. coli indicates faecal contamination. 3/

We can also reveal preliminary results from Professor Price’s study that shows that 45% of the bacteria they found on American retail meat is resistant to at least one antibiotic. 4/

In the US the rate of antibiotics given to livestock is 5 times higher per kilo than in the UK. Scientists are concerned that this will cause a rise in antibiotic resistant bacteria, which could prevent our life-saving medicines from working. 5/

US meat producers use 6 antibiotics that are classed by the World Health Organisation as “critically important” to human medicine. 6/

US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue declined to be interviewed but has previously said that the US is doing a much better job in ensuring that antibiotics are not overused & that most poultry is now antibiotic free & many other animals are only given them when they are sick 7/

The UK Government have insisted that if the UK were to do a trade deal with the US, that they’re not going to lower UK food standards. 8/

WATCH: Dirty Secrets of American Food: Coming to a Supermarket Near You? Monday at 8pm on @Channel4

[ecstatic]

1. Yikes!

That's really gross. I just bought a bunch of meat yesterday. 🤢

[octoberlib]

2. And it's not just meat. There are almost

constant recalls on lettuce and other vegetables. Why is this country so much worse? Lack of regulation, I guess.

[SheltieLover]

3. Didn't "it" cut inspectors?

I recall pork inspectors being cut before covid & chicken just recently. Or at least news about both.

[octoberlib]

4. Yep, you're right. Forgot about that.

I’m sure Sonny Perdue recommended it.

[SheltieLover]

7. No doubt!

[AllyCat]

6. I keep thinking "whew! I don't eat meat!"

But it is everything else. We wash EVERYTHING now because of coronavirus and my family eats meat. This is disgusting and dangerous!

[AllyCat]

5. All those antibiotics

And yet we blame “over-protective” mothers for seeking medicine for their kids when they are sick.

[Lonestarblue]

8. Much of the US food industry is equivalent to third-world standards.

Factory farming has made meat products unsafe to eat unless thoroughly cooked, and even then I wonder how much of the hormones and antibiotics we are ingesting. This article makes me want to become a vegetarian!

I would far rather see a farm policy that supports organic food production than our policies that reward big agribusiness. They have genetically modified many products for Roundup use that causes cancer. And tests of GMO foods have shown that they’re nutritionally inferior to non-GMO counterparts.

And there‘s a reason why most processed foods have a ton of sugar added—it’s cheap and addictive. Having been able to travel in Europe a few times before Covid hit, I can say for sure that they do not add sugar to most foods, unless it’s dessert.

Between the food industry and the chemical industry, the US is being poisoned.