Antibiotics in milk: how not to harm health?

Residues of medicines can be found in MILK produced in both large factories and small farms

 

Antibiotics are widely used in animal husbandry - chickens, cows, even fish - would be sicker much more often if they were not "fed" with drugs. But along with their MEAT, eggs and milk, the antibiotics also come to our table. What can it be fraught with, we have written many times: microorganisms become more and more resistant to drugs. Accordingly, if we become seriously ill, the medicines may not help us. The World HEALTH Organization also warns of this.

 

Cows in both large and small farms produce milk all year round. And it causes inflammation in their bodies. Because of the crowded nature of animals, they are crowded and often have various infections. Animals get sick, and to cure them, the same drugs are used that are used for humans. Antibiotics, for example, are used to treat mastitis in cows, so milk cannot be found without them.

 

Theoretically, the use of antibiotics is safe: the law sets limits that manufacturers must comply with, and Rospotrebnadzor controls their implementation. However, if you constantly drink milk in which the norms are exceeded, you may have health problems.

 

More than 70 types of antibiotics

 

- More than 70 kinds of antibiotics are used in animal husbandry," says Svetlana Sheveleva, DOCTOR of Medicine and HEAD of the Laboratory of Biosafety and Analysis of Nutrient Microbioma at the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. - Four basic groups are controlled in our country: levomycetine, streptomycin, tetracycline and penicillin. It is not the antibiotics themselves that get into the milk, but their residual quantity. Therefore, the use of milk with a residual amount of antibiotics and the use of a similar drug are not the same. Instant reactions to such milk are rare - only if you have an allergic reaction to penicillin. However, if we drink milk every day with a residual amount of antibiotics in excess of the permitted levels, the body gets used to these substances.

 

What changes the new technical regulation

 

In RUSSIA on May 1 of this year a new technical regulation for milk came into force - the document tightened the requirements for the content of antibiotics. According to the new standards, the content of levomisetin, streptomycin and penicillin in milk should be reduced.

 

- When the new technical regulations were approved, we managed to ensure that the tetracycline standards did not increase: in Europe, it is allowed to use it in higher dosages," says Svetlana Sheveleva. - Although, despite this, the quality of our milk is not yet up to European standards.

 

Despite the new technical regulations, we now have a few stumbling blocks:

 

1. Monitoring compliance with the requirements for the four main groups of antibiotics allowed in food leaves much to be desired. The quality of milk is not checked at the farms - the analysis is carried out only at the factory, where the milk is brought for processing. They can check each batch not every day, but, for example, every 10 days.

 

2. Rospotrebnadzor should not be inspected more often than every 3-4 years. And, besides, experts cannot come unexpectedly. According to the law, they are obliged to notify about their visit. That is, entrepreneurs always have time to prepare.

 

3. The main groups of antibiotics (i.e. only four in total) are checked, but the content of all others will be checked only if the manufacturer himself states that they have been used.

 

4. Today, it is impossible to say exactly how much antibiotics with milk we consume - such statistics are simply not kept. But the fact that they are in the milk, though minimally, is for sure.

 

What does it mean?

 

As usual, the consequences may be the most distant. Now we consume enough milk (about 300 kg per year on average, although WHO recommends 36 litres, taking into account the different dairy products - kefir, cottage cheese, etc.). What happens in an organism where antibiotics accumulate slowly but surely?

 

According to Svetlana Sheveleva, the meat and dairy industry most often uses antibiotics of tetracycline group, because these drugs are cheaper and more effective. According to EU data, tetracycline antibiotics were used in more than 50% of cases. However, we would like to remind you that there are about 70 variants of antibiotics used in industry.

 

As for tetracycline, it is not completely eliminated from the body. Accumulating in bone tissue, it can disrupt its formation, especially dangerous for children, because they can slow down growth. In adults, regular intake of tetracycline leads to the destruction of teeth.

 

The paradox is that we drink milk because of the calcium that is good for the teeth and bones, and we get the opposite result.

 

IMPORTANT

 

How to choose the safest

 

Yeah, we can't completely protect ourselves from antibiotics in our food. But there are still a few tips on how to try to avoid them: