UK supermarkets are not doing enough to ensure its suppliers use antibiotics in the most responsible way, a new report has revealed.
New regulations were rolled out in the UK this year to limit the use of antibiotics in farming, with British farmers no longer covered by EU rules.
The law states that antibiotics should not be used to compensate for inadequate animal husbandry or poor hygiene.
Despite this, new research by the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics (ASOA), looking at the practices of the UK’s largest grocers identified significant gaps in the implementation of the regulations, The Guardian reported.
The ASOA research, which is the fourth in a host of reports carried out by the alliance since 2017, ranks grocers on a checklist of criteria, such as whether it has a target on reducing antibiotic use, and what policies it has to ensure antibiotics are only used when necessary.
The majority of supermarket policies only cover its own-brand products, with none of the retailers investigated by ASOA having released full data on antibiotics detailing use of the medicines by each farm supplier.
The ranking system awarded green for good practice, amber for a criterion parly met, and red for poor practice.
Marks & Spencer was given 10 green ticks out of 12 and two amber. While Tesco and Waitrose came in joint second place, with both grocers failing to give full information on their antibiotic use.
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Other supermarkets in the investigation were Sainsbury’s, Asda, Aldi, Lidl, Co-op and Iceland.
However, an Iceland spokesperson disputed the research, claiming it published its policies directly to suppliers rather than publicly.
They added that the supermarket’s policy restricted the utilisation of highest priority critically important antibiotics, such as colistin, and that it followed UK and EU rules.
ASOA policy and science manager Cóilín Nunan said: “Globally, it is estimated that about two-thirds of all antibiotics are used in farm animals.
“Yet supermarkets are often not checking whether imported food they are selling has been produced with routine antibiotic use.”
“This is unfair on UK farmers, who are held to higher standards. More importantly, it is a threat to the health of consumers.”
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