Usefulness of food chain information provided by Dutch finishing pig producers to control antibiotic residues in pork

The EU prescribes that food business operators must use food chain information to assist in food safety control. This study analyses usefulness of food chain information about antibiotic usage covering the 60-day period prior to delivery of pigs to slaughter in the control of antibiotic residues in pork. A dataset with 479 test results for antibiotic residues in tissue samples of finishing pigs delivered to a Dutch slaughter company was linked to information provided by pig producers about antibiotic usage in these finishing pigs. Results show that twice as many producers reported using antibiotics in the group of 82 producers with antibiotic residues (11.0%) compared to the group without antibiotic residues (5.5%) (p=0.0686). For 89% of consignments with a finishing pig with antibiotic residues, the producer reported ‘did not use antibiotics’. Food chain information about antibiotic usage provided by Dutch pig producers was no guarantee for absence of antibiotic residues in delivered finishing pigs.