Food imports treated with banned antibiotics, study finds

Consumers may be buying food imports of meat, dairy and eggs from supermarkets produced with banned farm antibiotics, a new report has found.

Campaign group the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics carried out a survey of all 10 leading UK supermarkets, analysing their farm antibiotics policies.

All now have a policy aimed at ending routine preventative antibiotics use in their supply chains.

Despite some improvements, however, the alliance found that most imports and branded products are not covered by the supermarket’s own rules for responsible antibiotics use.

See also: How a dairy made a two-year transition to organic farming

Some policies only cover own-brand fresh meat, dairy and eggs of UK origin, leaving frozen produce, ready meals, ingredients and branded produce with no restrictions on antibiotics use, other than minimum legal standards.

This means there is no reliable way for shoppers to avoid buying food produced with irresponsible antibiotics use.

The alliance says this is concerning as the UK government is seeking to reach agrifood trade deals with non-EU countries, but it will not insist that food imports at least match the high standards of UK agriculture.

For example, several antibiotics are used as growth promoters in livestock on low-welfare farms in the US, Australia and New Zealand, but are no longer permitted to be used on British or European farms.

Antibiotics use halved

According to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), there was a drop of more than 50% in antibiotics use for livestock on UK farms between 2014 and 2020. This now means UK agriculture has among the lowest use of antibiotics in Europe and globally.

As a result of the findings of its study, the alliance has launched an online petition , urging supermarkets to apply their rules for responsible antibiotics use to all animal products sold in their stores.

The petition is being supported by TV’s Dr Chris Van Tulleken, an infectious diseases doctor and Medical Research Council clinical research fellow at University College London Hospital. 

He said: “We need to get antibiotics misuse out of the food chain, as it is contributing to the global crisis of antibiotic resistance. If we no longer have reliable, effective antibiotics, we will see a lot more deaths due to infection. This will even affect young people, including children.”

Industry reaction

Responding to the report, NFU deputy president Stuart Roberts said: “The UK farming industry has made massive strides in its approach to antibiotics stewardship.

“Through collaboration and sharing best practice, we have achieved a 52% reduction in antibiotics use since 2014, demonstrating what can be achieved when government and industry work together through initiatives such as the Targets Task Force chaired by the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture (Ruma) alliance.

“It’s important that all parts of the supply chain work collaboratively and transparently to continue this phenomenal success, including ensuring that imported foods are an equivalent standard.”