Antibiotic residues in food and drinking water and food safety regulations

Animals are treated routinely with antibiotics to prevent, treat, or control disease. Even under the best conditions of agricultural management, crowding and stress can lead to disease. While historically there have also been nontherapeutic uses of antibiotics, typically as production tools to improve endpoints such as feed efficiency and weight gain, there is a call to diminish these uses worldwide, and concern for the development of resistance to antibiotics used in human medicine as a result of their use in animal agriculture has led to international efforts to evaluate that risk. The results of the therapeutic uses are healthy animalsthat contribute to a healthful and plentiful food supply. Measured concentrations of pharmaceuticals in water and crops in the studies described, typically result in exposures that are well below human therapeutic dose levels or acceptable daily intakes (ADIs). However, there is concern among the scientific and regulatory communities and the general public that exposure to pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, in the environment may affect human health. Maximum residue limits (MRLs) also are linked directly to the ADI. Significantly, however, the MRLs are not derived from the ADI and do not represent a direct partitioning of the ADI. Rather, they are reflective of the concentrations of residues incurred under the evaluated conditions of use, determined using appropriately validated analytical methods.

Keywords:

antibiotic residue , food , water