Animal feces in meat … 98% is “non-compliant”

98% of the beef consumed in Lebanon does not meet the bacteriological specifications according to Lebanese and international standards, while 35% of the “Escherichia coli” bacteria found in meat are resistant to many antibiotics. This was the most surprising conclusion of a study published by MDPI based on 50 samples of raw ground meat collected from 50 butchers and consumer cooperatives in Beirut during the spring and summer of 2018.

While the Lebanese Standards Institution (LIBNOR) set the permissible limit for colonic feces in raw ground meat at 100 CFU (number of colony units) per gram, the results of the study were disastrous and exceeded the specified standards terribly, as the Coliform fecal index ranged according to the samples between CFU / g 6.3 x 104 and CFU / g 1.62 x 107.
While Lipnor did not specify acceptable levels of e colie in ground meat, the acceptable level in the United States, for example, is 500 CFU / g. But in Lebanon, according to the study, the rate of these bacteria ranged between 4.5 × 103 and 3.48 × 106 CFU / g, exceeding acceptable limits thousands of times. The study revealed what is most dangerous, and that is that these bacteria are resistant to many antibiotics. He attributed this to Lebanon’s over-reliance on antibiotic use in farms and food industries, or high reliance on them in importing countries, noting that Lebanon imports most of its livestock from India and Brazil. When animals, especially chickens and cows, receive antibiotics in large quantities and people consume them in large quantities, an internal immunity to the antibiotic is produced and therefore it is no longer valid to kill the bacteria.

Bacteria in meat thousands of times higher than acceptable levels

Lebanese consume an average of 39.5 kg of meat per year, according to the study, bringing high levels of colic and e-coli bacteria to these levels of great concern. The study comes amid the paucity of data on the microbiological levels that determine the validity of consuming a group of foods. It recommended the need to develop food safety systems, invest in infrastructure and monitor food safety periodically to practice a healthy and solid operation, and that interested institutions take this issue as a priority, due to its impact on public health . All of these are “not easy issues in a country like Lebanon that suffers from economic and social crises”, according to the study carried out by researchers: Ismat Qassem (University of Georgia), Nevin Nasser and Jonah Saliba (American University of Beirut).

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