Antibiotics in Food

As of this writing, over 10,000 HAWK Facebook followers have looked at the Massive Beef Recall article I posted yesterday.  Since then, many people have commented on how they can safely consume beef and safety concerns on the foods they may be ordering out at area restaurants.

People that get sick on tainted meat increases every year.  According to the Center For Science in the Public Interest, human antibiotics in meats and a simple infection can make you seriously sick or in some cases kill you.  The problem is bacteria is becoming increasingly immune to antibiotics.  It happens in people and it's happening in our livestock.  It's all how these animals are raised.  "At least 440,000 Americans are sickened each year after eating or handling food that's sickened each year that's tainted with antibiotic resistant bacteria, according to an article from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Pretty scary statistics. But what can you do?

Labels can be confusing when you are looking for meats that do not contain antibiotics.  When shopping at the grocery store for beef, pork and chicken, look for labels that have: USDA Organic, American Grassfed Association, Food Alliance Grassfed, "No antibiotics added" and "Raised without antibiotics."  Labels that claim "100% grass fed", "natural" and "humanely raised" do allow antibiotics.

How can you be sure you are eating beef, pork and chicken without antibiotics?  Local restaurants vary but an eye opening report published by Natural Resources Defense Council grades a number of big chain restaurants, rating these chains from A-F.  While Chipotle, Panera Bread, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonalds and Chick-fil-A fared well, other chains did not.  Click HERE for the full report.

As one HAWK Facebook follower stated, she is "so glad we buy our beef from a farmer and not in the store."  Not everyone has that luxury. The best thing to do is try to do research to know when your food is coming from and support stores and restaurants that think like you do.