Characterisation of illegally imported meat and meat products and identification of E. coli in the samples confiscated at the Croatian borders

Prevention and control of foodborne diseases is an international public health goal. Legal imports of food of animal origin are monitored for contamination, and alerts are reported regularly, but food brought into the country illegally could represent a potential threat to consumers’ health. In order to assess the level of the risk for public health from uncontrolled imported food of animal origin entering the Republic of Croatia, 83 meat samples were collected at 6 border points between Croatia and third countries. The origins of all confiscated samples were third countries, and the final destinations were EU countries and Switzerland. The weight of the confiscated samples ranged from 500 g to 108 kg. Special attention was focused on the presence of E. coli and its antimicrobial susceptibility. From altogether 83 confiscated meat samples, 8 were positive for E. coli. Although STEC and/or O157, as well as multidrug resistant E. coli were not found in the examined samples, illegally imported meat should be monitored continuously to prevent possible foodborne bacterial infections.