80% of hospital food contaminated with ESBL-producing E. coli

A new study may have cemented hospital food’s bad reputation. The study found that more than 80% of raw chicken in hospitals was contaminated with an ESBL-producing (extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing) E. coli strain which is resistant to antibiotics.

The good news is that hospital food isn’t likely to make you more sick than when you were admitted: generally, food preparation standards in hospital kitchens are high enough to take care of the bacteria. What the researchers are concerned about, however, is that chicken delivered to hospital kitchens remains a potential point of entry for this particular type of bacteria into the hospital.

“While a high proportion of chicken contaminated by antibiotic-resistant E. coli is a significant concern, robust food safety measures taken by hospital kitchen staff are able to prevent the spread of these pathogens and minimise risk to food handlers, staff and patients,” said Dr Andrew Stewardson, lead author of the study.

Raw chicken delivered to the University Hospital of Geneva in Switzerland - which prepares more than 8000 meals daily - was tested for E. coli. Researchers compared the hospital samples to food in local supermarkets, looking for the presence of ESBL, and found that 85% of chicken meat samples were positive for ESBL.

The researchers also looked at how food, as a potential source of multiresistant bacteria, impacts the health of food handlers, healthcare workers and patients. They found that six of 93 food handlers were ESBL carriers but, overall, were no more likely to be colonised by ESBL-producing bacteria than the general Swiss population.

The study authors conclude that industrial risk management strategies in hospital kitchens seem to be sufficient to minimise risk to food handlers, hospital staff and patients. However, they caution that this conclusion may not apply to household kitchens, where food safety precautions are less rigidly applied.

The study was published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.