A study of pork products available in UK supermarkets by The Guardian newspaper has found that nine packets of pork chops - eight Danish and one Irish - were found to be infected with CC398, a strain of the MRSA superbug.
A total of 100 products were studied, from supermarkets including Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's and The Co-operative.
The paper reported that while such a strain can be killed by cooking, it can cause significant health effects in certain people. Its presence is due to the increased use of antibiotics in farming.
Some two-thirds of Danish farms are infected with CC398, which is resistant to the antibiotics used in intensive farming, the paper said.
Dr Melissa Ward of Edinburgh University told The Guardian that the findings “emphasize the need for strict biosecurity measures in the food production industry and the importance of infection control measures in hospitals, as well as responsible antibiotic usage in both veterinary and human medicine”.
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