The Ability of Temperature to Reduce Antibiotic Residues in Livestock Products: A Review

The use of antibiotic drugs in livestock production cannot be avoided; it has to be used for various reasons like therapeutics, prophylactic and even as growth promoters. However the irrational use of antibiotics in livestock has led to the accumulation of its residues in animal tissues and their products. The deposition of residues in food originated from livestock animals is a critical problem in many countries and the problem is more serious in developing countries around the world, due to their potential health hazards. Generally the residues are more procedurally estimated on uncooked meat, but meat food undergoes varying degree of heat treatment during cooking process, therefore information on heat stability of antibiotics is an important area of research to give a more accurate estimate of consumer’s exposure to these antibiotic compounds and their metabolites. It has been stated that heat treatment at different time-temperature combinations degrades and reduces antibiotic drug residues in animal products. However, cooking processes do not guarantee complete degradation of antibiotic drug residues. So the objective of this review paper is to illustrate various changes of the compound during cooking process, supported by various studies and findings.