Assessing the Impact of Heat Treatment of Food on Antimicrobial Resistance Genes and Their Potential Uptake by Other Bacteria—A Critical Review

Abstract

The dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) is a global health concern. This study identifies and critically reviews the published evidence on whether cooking (heating) food to eliminate bacterial contamination induces sufficient damage to the functionality of ARGs. Overall, the review found that there is evidence in the literature that Antimicrobial Resistant (AMR) bacteria are no more heat resistant than non-AMR bacteria. Consequently, recommended heat treatments sufficient to kill non-AMR bacteria in food (70 °C for at least 2 min, or equivalent) should be equally effective in killing AMR bacteria. The literature shows there are several mechanisms through which functional genes from AMR bacteria could theoretically persist in heat-treated food and be transferred to other bacteria. The literature search found sparce published evidence on whether ARGs may actually persist in food after effective heat treatments, and whether functional genes can be transferred to other bacteria. However, three publications have demonstrated that functional ARGs in plasmids may be capable of persisting in foods after effective heat treatments. Given the global impact of AMR, there is clearly a need for further practical research on this topic to provide sufficient evidence to fully assess whether there is a risk to human health from the persistence of functional ARGs in heat-treated and cooked foods.

Development of microencapsulated dried Bacillus sp. 63‐11 with enhanced shelf stability and bioactivity for use as a food supplement

“…This response was similar to that of fresh Bacillus culture (8 log CFU g À1 ), as previously reported by Khullar et al (2022). Although several reports insisted that heat treatment could induce antibiotic and antimicrobial resistance in cells (James et al, 2021;Ko & Bai, 2022), the results from this study demonstrated that the drying process did not deleteriously affect AMR and/or ARGs properties of Bacillus 63-11 strain.…”

Trend of Antimicrobial Use in Food-Producing Animals from 2018 to 2020 in Nepal

“…Collectively, the higher use of antimicrobials is a confounding factor contributing towards AMR [ 6 ]. Furthermore, increasing AMR in zoonotic pathogens that may not necessarily cause diseases in animals, such as Salmonella and Campylobacter [ 7 ], and the dissemination of such resistant bacteria and/or AMR genes to humans [ 8 ], are even more concerning. If no actions are taken, the global sales and use of antimicrobials are expected to rise until 2030 on all continents, primarily in developing countries, as commercial livestock growth is higher in these countries [ 9 ].…”

The IncC and IncX1 resistance plasmids present in multi-drug resistantEscherichia colistrains isolated from poultry manure in Poland

“…Such genetic linkage between metaland antibiotic-resistance traits has been reported on plasmids in Enterobacteriaceae and in other bacteria isolated from other animal feces, soil, or sewage (47)(48)(49)(50). It has been shown that metals used in animal feed accumulate and persist in food animals, and may impact the development of AMR in primary animal and food production environments (51). Many studies indicate that the spread of AMR introduced through the application of manure to agricultural fields leads to its further spread within the food chain, and may pose a risk to human health (17,(52)(53)(54).…”