what does "retail " mean here?

[NewHopeR]

What is "retail food chain"?


Context:

Context:

Advanced cephalosporins can no longer be used as empirical therapy in many countries. Hence, carbapenems, an antibiotic class that represents the last available weapon against many gram-negative bacilli, are being used increasingly for empirical therapy. Resistance to these agents will accelerate if carbapenems become standard first-line therapy worldwide, particularly in intensive care, where selective pressure and transmission risks are highest. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter species can be highly resistant to ceftazidime, fluoroquinolones, and carbapenems. An increasing number of organisms are resistant to all antibiotics, including colistin12. K pneumoniae and E coli will probably become increasingly resistant to carbapenems by harbouring carbapenemases or nucleoside diphosphate enzymes, such as the New Delhi metallo-betalactamase (NDM1) 13. The spread of these resistant gram-negative organisms should be regarded as a growing but insufficiently publicised pandemic.Some drug resistance among Enterobacteriaceae came from the use of antibiotics in animals in the retail food chain. E coli and Salmonella strains resistant to fluoroquinolones and third-generation cephalosporins 14 have been associated with meat and poultry products.

[5jj]

Congratulations. I am impressed.

[Tdol]

I think it's a literal meaning here- the animals that are reared for consumption as food in all forms- a chain leading to us.

[Rover_KE]

Wow, NewHopeR!

You understand all that other stuff but get stumped by retail food chain?

[5jj]

You understand all that other stuff...

Doesn't everybody know that " The cephalosporins ( /ˌsɛfəlɵˈspɔrɨn/) are a class of β-lactam antibiotics originally derived from Acremonium, which was previously known as "Cephalosporium".[1]"?(Cephalosporin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

I am fairly sure that I learnt that at primary school.

[Rover_KE]

I wish I'd been privately educated.

[JohnParis]

Maybe I'm missing something here , but has the question been answered?
"Retail Food Chain" refers to the retail distribution system where parts of the animals that were treated with these advanced antibiotics ended up being sold. Marks and Spencer in the UK and Safeway in the US are examples of retail food chains.
However, in this article, "retail food chain" refers to all retailers that make up the distribution system (M&S, Safeway and thousands of others) that delivers goods to the end consumer. The sentence should have been written along the lines of "Some drug resistance among Enterobacteriaceae came from the use of antibiotics in animals that ended up for sale in the retail food chain."

Cheers,
John

[NewHopeR]

How informative!
Thank you all guys.