Key Highlights :
Antibiotic overuse in animals is an increasing problem in the United Kingdom, with campaign groups claiming that hospital and school caterers are not doing enough to stop farmers from overusing antibiotics. Such overuse raises the risk of antibiotic resistance rendering key human medicines ineffective. BBC reports that health and animal welfare campaigners have analyzed 10 UK caterers' policies and found a lack of a ban, resulting in weak or absent controls on antibiotics.
The government, caterers, and suppliers argue that voluntary measures are effective, citing a 55% drop in antibiotic use in food-producing animals since 2014 and an 83% decrease in the use of antibiotics most critical for human use. Caterers who supply the public sector have stated that they are committed to reducing unnecessary antibiotic use in animals farmed for food.
The Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics (ASOA) assessed the publicly-available food procurement policies of 10 of the UK's leading caterers supplying the NHS, the education sector, care homes, and prisons. In a report released on Thursday, it claimed the firms had either "weak or non-existent" policies on antibiotic use. It said the companies were "lagging well behind" the standards set by supermarkets and elsewhere in the commercial food sector.
Meanwhile, ASOA found that there is no current requirement for responsible antibiotic use in the government's own public sector procurement standards. These are the mandatory food buying rules for the NHS, armed forces, and prisons, and recommended best practice for schools and local authorities. The alliance also found that Defra itself, which leads efforts to reduce antibiotic use on farms, has a contract with one of the firms criticized in the report.
Cóilín Nunan, the Alliance's scientific advisor, stated that the government could use its considerable purchasing power in public service contracts to encourage better controls on antibiotic use. “The current situation shows a lack of joined-up thinking,” he said. “Defra is proposing legislation to ban the routine use of antibiotics on farms, yet it is concerning that a company that is not making a significant effort, based on what is publicly available, is winning a Defra contract.”
The catering company, ISS, said it takes the responsible sourcing of food “incredibly seriously”. “Every meal we serve meets stringent UK regulatory requirements and we work only with food suppliers who meet the high safety, animal welfare, and traceability standards we demand as part of our contract terms,” a spokesperson said. “We are currently in the process of updating our buying standards policy to formally address the use of antibiotics in our supply chain and will publish this document on our website in due course.”
ASOA is comprised of medical, environmental, and animal welfare organizations who are worried that the continued overuse of antibiotics will render many of the lifesaving medicines we have today less effective. That is because the infections that they are used to treat are continually adapting and they can evolve into forms that are resistant to antibiotic treatment. One assessment in medical journal calculates that more than 1.25m people worldwide are dying each year as the result of the emergence of new superbugs because of the overuse of antibiotics. In the UK, the figure for deaths from drug-resistant infections is more than 7,500.
Governments across the world have acknowledged that the best way to slow the emergence of superbugs is to restrict the use of antibiotics, both in human and animal health. Antibiotics are widely used on farms to protect animals from disease. But there has been concern that they can be routinely overused by the industry to prevent healthy animals, particularly those that are farmed intensively, from becoming ill.
It is clear that hospital and school caterers need to do more to stop farmers from overusing antibiotics. The UK government should use its considerable purchasing power to encourage better controls on antibiotic use and ensure that caterers are held to the same standards as supermarkets and other commercial food sectors. This will help to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance and ensure that key human medicines remain effective.