Chicken meat tested: more than half is contaminated with antibiotic-resistant germs
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The latest test results from ÖKO-TEST are not very appetizing: 14 out of 23 chickens fail due to contamination with antibiotic-resistant germs. The results indicate that the poultry meat industry plays a massive role in introducing antibiotic-resistant pathogens into the environment and the food chain.
ÖKO-TEST had 23 chicken breast fillets tested in the laboratory for antibiotic-resistant germs. Seven organic chickens and seven chickens from conventional farming were classified as "questionable" by the consumer protection experts. This is not an acute health risk at first, but antibiotic-resistant germs are one of the biggest threats to public health worldwide because they make infections that are actually easy to treat increasingly difficult to treat.
In the past, spot checks by authorities and institutions have already indicated that the poultry meat industry is largely responsible for circulating antibiotic-resistant pathogens. If contaminated meat ends up in our kitchens, the germs can spread to humans and cause infections if hygiene is poor. This allows them to spread and multiply - with the fatal consequence that antibiotics are no longer effective in many cases.
The use of antibiotics is commonplace in conventional factory farming. Efforts to reduce this through the legally enshrined antibiotic minimization concept in order to stop the development of antibiotic resistance, among other things, do not appear to be working. According to a report by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), there was no decrease in the absolute quantities consumed in any class of active ingredient in 2024.
But organic meat is also affected in the test. Among other things, this may be due to cross-contamination in slaughterhouses, where animals from all types of husbandry are often processed and the germs can be transmitted accordingly.
From ÖKO-TEST's point of view, there is an urgent need to reduce the use of antibiotics in chicken fattening and to improve slaughter hygiene. In order to avoid the spread and transmission of germs in your own household, the consumer advocates recommend storing the products in a cool place, not washing them, consistently separating them from other foods and roasting them thoroughly.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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