Food Safety and Food Access: A Pilot Study

Abstract

(WC 238)Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate the feasibility of testing the hypothesis that differences in neighborhood level food access may be associated with consumer exposure to food borne microbial contamination. Methods:This study was carried out in Baltimore MD in 2011 among selected neighborhoods defined as high or low food access. In each category, packages of chicken thighs and ground beef were purchased from small stores and supermarkets. We evaluated presence of E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus and also tested isolates for antimicrobial resistance.Results: Microbial contamination of both chicken and beef products was highly prevalent (S. aureus-13/32 for chicken and 14/32 for beef; E. coli 21/32 for chicken and 12/32 for beef). Small stores were more likely to sell food carrying these microbes as well as MDR strains of both E. coli and S. aureus, and chicken was more likely to carry E. coli as compared to ground beef. Conclusions:This is the first study of this hypothesis. While it is limited in size and in focus on one US city, the results indicate that further research is appropriate to examine neighborhood level risk factors for differential exposures to food borne microbes. Abbreviations: S. aureus (Staphylococcus aureus); E. coli (Escherichia coli), MRSA (methicilllin resistantStaphylococcus aureus), MDR (multi-drug resistant), LFA (low food access), HFA (high food access). FDA (US Food and Drug Administration), USDA (US Department of Agriculture), CLSI (Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute).

Retail Food Safety

“…While the data appeared to indicate that small stores were more likely to carry meat and poultry contaminated with the organisms, the researchers were not able to attain a suffi cient sample size for statistical analy- sis. This was a result of the challenge of locating equal numbers of stores carrying raw meat and poultry in both HFA and LFA areas ( Silbergeld et al 2013 ). This research highlights the challenges, therefore, of assessing differences in food safety through sampling and microbial testing at the retail level.…”