U Arkansas System Division of Agriculture / Flickr cc
A new study examining antibiotic-resistant bacterial contamination in retail meat samples indicate that how the meat is produced matters. But how the meat is processed also matters.
The study, published last week in
Environmental Health Perspectives, found that retail meat samples from producers certified as organic by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) had a significantly lower prevalence of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) than meat raised conventionally.
In addition, the study also found that retail meat processed at facilities that handle both organic and conventional meat—known as "split" facilities—had a lower prevalence of overall bacterial contamination than meat processed at facilities that exclusively handle conventionally raised meat, regardless of how the meat was produced.