BRITS are being warned by the Government to cook all meat thoroughly to avoid deadly superbugs.
It signals the end of bloody steaks or medium-cooked burgers.
Touching raw chicken, pork or beef could also cause potentially lethal infections, experts warn. Scientists in a major Government review blame the overuse of antibiotics in farming for a rise in drug-resistant superbugs.
The report urges supermarkets to label all meat produced using them.
And the worried scientists warn it is breeding bacteria immune to powerful drugs with the potential to kill millions.
The alert comes from a body set up by Prime Minister David Cameron to investigate the threat from superbugs.
He has already said drug-resistant infections threaten to send medicine “back to the dark ages”.
The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance said without urgent action the global death toll from the killer bugs will hit 10million a year by 2050 – from 700,000 now. It warned infections will claim more lives than the eight million a year now claimed worldwide by cancer.
Experts said shop-bought meat could be a key source of bug transmission.
But Lord Jim O’Neill, who chairs the review, said there is currently no way for shoppers to know if meat is infected.
He said: “My advice to consumers is to make sure they cook meat properly. If you’re going to cook steak rare, you have to be aware where it comes from.”
He added: “If meat is poorly cooked and has drug-resistant bacteria, we could end up eating it. Supermarkets should consider labelling whether antibiotics were used in meat production.”
Lord O’Neill also called for strict targets to reduce antibiotics in farming.
Brendan Wren, Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “A lot of food, particularly meat products, can be contaminated with bacteria that are increasingly resistant to antibiotics.
“Raw food products should be handled with care and appropriately cooked.”
A Government spokesman said: “If handled and cooked properly, the risk of getting superbugs from meat is very low.
“Overuse of antibiotics in farming is a major issue and we are working closely with countries across the world to monitor it so we can take action.
“We must all work together to preserve the antibiotics we have if we are to save modern medicine as we know it.”
But Cat McLaughlin, of the National Farmers’ Union, slammed the report and said her members acted responsibly. She said: “Antibiotics should be used as little as possible but as much as needed.”
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