How supermarkets help the spread of deadly antibiotic-resistant diseases
Some supermarkets are failing to check whether imported food they sell has been produced with routine antibiotic use — a major factor in the growing global crisis of antibiotic-resistant superbugs
It was a harrowing story. A soldier from the Ukrainian battlefield had his leg amputated by the NHS because antibiotics could not treat his infection. A poignant and timely reminder of just how close we are to a health crisis where antibiotics are increasingly being rendered useless.
Doctors at St George’s Hospital in south London found themselves with an unenviable dilemma. It turned out that the 35-year-old soldier’s extensive shrapnel wounds were the least of his problems.
A bacterial infection had taken hold deep within his wounds and antibiotics couldn’t touch it. An array of antibiotics failed to quell the infection. According to The Times, these included colistin, a ‘top-shelf’ antibiotic reserved for cases where nothing else will work. But even that didn’t work. Instead, to save the soldier’s life from the mutated superbugs, doctors were forced to resort to a treatment from medieval times: they amputated his leg at the knee.
Global health crisis
Known as the ‘silent pandemic’, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) happens when bacteria and other pathogens evolve to evade the drugs used to treat them. A study published last month in The Lancet found an estimated 1.14 million deaths were attributable to bacterial AMR in 2021. The study forecasts that the global death toll from superbugs’ resistance to antibiotics could rise to over eight million a year by 2050. “The numbers are going to inexorably rise, and we are not where we need to be in tackling the problem,” Dame Sally Davies, the UK special envoy on AMR and former chief medical officer, told The Telegraph.
AMR is now cited as one of the most urgent global health threats. So much so that world leaders met last month at the UN headquarters in New York to adopt a political declaration demanding immediate action to safeguard our ability to treat diseases in the future.
Antibiotic resistance doesn’t just impact hospitals or farms — it affects all of us. Everyday infections like strep throat, urinary tract infections, or even simple cuts could become untreatable.
As bacteria evolve and become resistant to antibiotics, what used to be routine medical treatments could turn life-threatening. We must reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, whether in farming or medicine, and focus on prevention through better hygiene, vaccinations, and animal welfare.
Economic impacts
Public awareness and global cooperation are essential. If we don’t act now, we risk returning to a time when minor infections were deadly, a future we cannot afford.
In monetary terms, the latest estimates suggest that, if no action is taken, drug-resistant bacteria could cause annual global GDP losses of up to £1.3 trillion by 2050.
It’s not only our health at stake but our food too. A major study led by the World Organisation for Animal Health predicts that by mid-century, AMR could result in production losses in the animal farming sector equivalent to the consumption needs of more than two billion people.
Antibiotic overuse in farming
About two-thirds of all the world’s antibiotics are given to farmed animals, largely to control diseases inherent in the cramped, squalid conditions of intensive farms. This is a big part of the reason for the World Health Organization warning that inaction means we face a post-antibiotic era, where diseases that are currently treatable could once again kill.
Of course, antibiotics and other veterinary medicines should be used to treat genuine illness in farmed animals.
But the fact is that precious antibiotics are being squandered to prop up an inherently bad and disease-ridden system. Intensive farms are breeding grounds for disease, because they keep legions of animals in very close proximity where infections can spread like wildfire.
Are supermarkets doing enough?
The overuse of antibiotics leads to antibiotic resistance, so new legislation was introduced in the UK earlier this year to restrict antibiotics in farming. The legislation prohibits using antibiotics to “compensate for poor hygiene, inadequate animal husbandry, or poor farm management practices”.
However, in practice supermarkets are frequently allowing their suppliers to use intensive-farming methods known to cause higher levels of disease and of antibiotic use.
In the UK, new findings by the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics (Asoa) suggest that supermarket supply chains are not yet complying with new legislation which prohibits using antibiotics to prop up poor farming practices.
While supermarket antibiotics policies have contributed to significant reductions in antibiotic use on UK farms over the past decade, most are generally not being applied to branded foods, which can include imported meat, fish, dairy and eggs.
According to the report, supermarkets are often not checking whether imported food they are selling has been produced with routine antibiotic use. This is unfair to domestic farmers, who are held to higher standards. It is also a threat to the health of consumers.
On the plus side, the Asoa finds that M&S is the best-performing supermarket in terms of responsible antibiotic use policy, followed by Tesco and Waitrose.
The way forward
The bottom line is that it is no longer legal to use antibiotics to prop up farming methods that are causing animals to fall sick. So, to avoid misusing antibiotics, and to keep animals healthy, all supermarkets must now take strong and urgent action to improve animal welfare.
Keeping animals free ranging and on pasture, such as on organic and regenerative farms, allows them to express their natural behaviours — running, flapping, grazing — making for happier animals with better immunity, which reduces the need for veterinary antibiotics. And that underscores a simple but important principle — being kind to animals really is akin to being kind to ourselves.
Philip Lymbery is chief executive of Compassion in World Farming and a former UN Food Systems Champion. His latest book is Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future. Philip is on Twitter @philip_ciwf
Note: This article was first published in The Scotsman on Friday 18th October, 2025
