Consumer Reports finds widespread bacteria contamination in pork

Consumer Reports finds widespread bacteria contamination in pork. The magazine tested 148 samples of pork chops and 50 samples of ground pork bought at stores in six U.S. cities. It found Yersinia enterocolitica — a pathogen that can cause fever, diarrhea and abdominal pain — in more than two-thirds of the samples, and discovered other bacteria as well. What’s more, many of the strains of bacteria were antibiotic-resistant, likely the result of the widespread practice of routinely feeding farm animals antiobiotics. In addition, about one-fifth of the pork products contained the drug ractopamine, which the U.S. approved in 1999 to promote growth and leanness in pigs but is banned in the European Union, China, and Taiwan.