The Norwegian Food Safety Authority (FSA) needs more knowledge for making a decision on labelling chicken meat for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the Norwegian news agency NTB reported on Monday.

The FSA said that it agrees with the Public Health and Veterinary Institute over the latter's assessment that enough knowledge is not available for giving advices on risk labelling of chicken meat.

"We need more knowledge about the risk these bacteria actually brings. Research under way now will give us more knowledge we need," Ole Fjetland, FSA assistant supervisory director, was quoted as saying.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been found recently on chicken fillets and turkey meat sold in Norway and the FSA has taken the problem seriously, ordering supermarkets to stop selling the contaminated chicken and turkey meat products while advising consumers to discard it or return it to the shops.

One-third of chicken fillets sold in Norway in 2012 is believed to be infected with ESBL bacteria.

The FSA says that it is not possible to "get rid of this problem until we get importation of the bacterium stopped."

The ESBL bacteria can pass resistance to common antibiotics like penicillin types.

In the European Union, around 30,000 people die annually as a result of antibiotic resistance.

Marianne Sunde, a Norwegian researcher on antibiotic resistance, has raised the issue of providing the public with a health warning by labelling.

"You do not know with certainty what consequences it has for people who take in chicken meat," Sunde said.

"It must be considered whether it should be on the package that chicken is a risk product," she said. Endit

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