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Thanksgiving is just days away, a time to feast with family. And to avoid food-borne bacterial infections.
The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, or NARMS, is a joint effort of the CDC, the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Microbiologist Lance Price talked about NARMS data last month at the ScienceWriters2011 conference in Flagstaff:
“What’s the probability of not finding drug-resistant bacteria on your meat and poultry? So pork chops you have about a one-in-10 chance of NOT finding drug-resistant bacteria. And this is just based on four bacteria that NARMS tests for: campylobactor, salmonella, E. coli and Enterococcus. Ground beef, one in 20. Chicken breasts, less than a one-in-100 chance of not finding drug-resistant bacteria. And then ground turkey, forget it: less than a one in 300 chance. Pretty much every sample of ground turkey will have drug-resistant bacteria.”
So remember, if you buy ground turkey for meatballs or burgers once the whole bird is gone, cook it. Thoroughly.
—Katherine Harmon
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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2 Comments
Add CommentI'd also like to hear how much bacteria we need to get sick and how much is in the meats mentioned. Is the bacteria on the surface of meats? Does it die when we cook the outside? How often does the average, cooked cut of meat really make people sick? Are the people that get sick usually immunocompromised? This report would be much more informative if these kinds of questions were addressed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI like chicken breasts(yellow n pink).I have been it regularly.Nothing happens.
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