Unsafe Hospital Food? There is a greater concern

A couple of days ago, I came across a reference to a report that claimed 85% of raw chicken delivered to the University Hospital in Geneva tested positive for strains of Escherichia coli resistant to extended-spectrum beta lactam antibiotics. These antibiotics belong to the penicillin family. The original study was published in  Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.  (Unfortunately, when I tried it, the link was broken).
Apparently, there were workers in the hospital kitchen who tested positive to carriage of the ESBL E. coli, however, the frequency was no greater than in the general population.

The finding of the high rate of contamination with ESBL resistant bacteria in the raw chickens is a concern, not because patients were at risk, but because it indicates that the poultry flocks had probably been exposed to antibiotics that are still used in therapy.  Proper procedures in the kitchens should ensure that the contaminating bacteria are destroyed and that cross contamination from raw meat to cooked or fresh foods is controlled.

The use of antibiotics in animal husbandry is leading to increased incidence of antibiotic resistant bacteria.  See my previous posts on antibiotics:  http://foodsafetywithjaybee.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/time-to-ban-antibiotic-use-in-animal.html    
et seq.

When I gave my inaugural lecture as Professor of Food Microbiology, I reviewed the developments in microbiology that led to the discovery and development of penicillin.  Before the advent of this antibiotic, a simple scratch with a rose thorn could be a death sentence if the scratch became infected.  It would be a catastrophe if we returned to those days because we had squandered our slim advantage over the pathogenic bacteria for short term financial gains by the animal rearing industries.