US beef tested positive for "ractopamine," and traditional markets are affected too
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Editor's note: On the evening of March 5, the Executive Yuan suddenly announced a policy direction for the conditional lifting of the ban on leanness-enhancing drugs in US beef, taking the public by surprise. Today the Consumers' Foundation released a press release stating that in February of this year it took samples from hypermarkets, supermarkets, department stores, traditional markets and other channels in Taipei City and New Taipei City, purchasing a total of 15 beef products. Of these, 6 were found to contain "ractopamine", coming from supermarkets, hypermarkets and traditional markets, showing that beef containing leanness-enhancing drugs has already spread across all kinds of channels, and the "three controls and five checks" policy has failed completely. The Consumers' Foundation calls for:
1. For the meat products found this time to contain leanness-enhancing drugs, health authorities should still exercise their public authority to trace their sources and understand the flow of meat from the source suppliers, truly acting as a gatekeeper for consumers.
2. In 2009, when our country faced the expansion of US beef imports to additional cuts, the then Executive Yuan Consumer Protection Commission, when appearing before the Legislative Yuan for questioning, clearly stated that it did not wish to and did not agree to the import of risky US beef cuts! The Consumers' Foundation hopes the Consumer Protection Office can truly fulfill its function of safeguarding consumer rights and demonstrate more concrete action.
3. Consumers are advised to buy meat with a clear place of origin, or even meat accompanied by a complete food traceability record; and food service operators should require their meat suppliers to provide safety certification for the meat before purchasing, in order to protect their own reputation.
Below is the complete press release issued by the Consumers' Foundation.
Consumers' Foundation sampling inspection - US beef tests positive for "ractopamine", traditional markets also affected!
Press release/ Consumers' Foundation of the Republic of China
The issue of whether our country should open up imports of US beef containing leanness-enhancing drugs has recently caused a great uproar. Originally leanness-enhancing drugs had not yet been permitted in Taiwan, so meat containing them was, by law, not allowed to be marketed or imported, but the United States permits their use, leading the US side to repeatedly pressure our country and demand the lifting of the ban.
This incident caused a public outcry, and amid the endless controversy, news broke that US beef sold at chain hypermarkets had tested positive for leanness-enhancing drugs. The hypermarkets hurriedly removed the problematic meat from shelves, but consumers' unease could not be ended; sure enough, it was later reported that meat sold at supermarkets, well-known steak houses and TV shopping channels had also tested positive, yet people had already eaten it. The "three controls and five checks" measures rolled out by the competent authorities had clearly failed!
Unexpectedly, just as all sectors had yet to reach a consensus on safety concerns about leanness-enhancing drugs, the Executive Yuan suddenly announced at around 11 p.m. on March 5 that it would conditionally lift the ban on leanness-enhancing drugs along the 16-character policy direction of "safe tolerance, separation of beef and pork, mandatory labeling, exclusion of offal", with the formal opening schedule to be decided after communication with all parties. The Consumers' Foundation is "extremely angry" at this move. Can the Executive Yuan announce the lifting of the ban in such a crude and hasty way and still claim to respect public opinion?
Experts believe that, regarding the assessment of the impact of leanness-enhancing drugs on human safety, there is still no definitive research data to date, and given that the relevant government agencies have been full of holes in their past gatekeeping work, it is really hard for consumers to feel assured and to understand the government's action in lifting the ban!
To act as a gatekeeper for consumers and to call on the food hygiene competent authorities to face up to the US beef leanness-enhancing drug issue, the Consumers' Foundation specifically conducted testing of leanness-enhancing drugs in beef on the market, and found that of 15 samples, 4 tested positive for "ractopamine" at 1 ppb or above, and 2 had detected amounts below 1 ppb. (Note: According to the Department of Health interpretive order No. Wei Shu Shi Zi No. 0960408882 of 2007, a detected amount below 1 ppb is regarded as not detected.)
Sampling description and test items
In February of ROC year 101, the Consumers' Foundation took samples from hypermarkets, supermarkets, department stores, traditional markets and other channels in Taipei City and New Taipei City, purchasing a total of 15 beef products. Of the 15 samples, 9 were US beef, 4 were Australian beef, and 2 were local beef; under current standards, leanness-enhancing drugs must not be detected. (See Table 1 for test items and methods.)
Leanness-enhancing drugs are a type of receptor agent; the scientific name of receptor agents is "adrenergic beta-agonist", a kind of "sympathomimetic stimulant", including clenbuterol, ractopamine (commonly known as leanness-enhancing drug, trade name Paylean (a pig feed additive)), salbutamol, terbutaline and other drugs with different ingredients.
Because drugs with different ingredients also have different safety profiles, although clenbuterol, salbutamol and terbutaline are approved human medicines, clinically mainly used to treat asthma, ractopamine (commonly known as leanness-enhancing drug, trade name Paylean) is not for human use, and under the current situation where it has not been opened up, it must not be detected in meat.
Adding leanness-enhancing drugs to feed can promote protein synthesis and increase growth rate to shorten the number of rearing days, thus achieving the goals of reducing feed expenditure and lowering rearing costs; it can also reduce the fat ratio, increase lean meat yield, and produce carcasses with a better appearance. But experts say leanness-enhancing drugs may trigger palpitations and cardiovascular disease; in addition, the latest research from the US Department of Agriculture also points out that pigs fed "ractopamine" show aggressive behavior, and the expression mechanism of this aggression gene is shared between humans and pigs, which may lead to symptoms such as anxiety and depression in people. Therefore it can be said that the addition of leanness-enhancing drugs only benefits the operators' profits and is of no benefit at all to consumers.
Test results
"Ractopamine" detected at a maximum of8.08 ppb, and all positive samples were produced in the United States!
According to the Consumers' Foundation's test results, of the 15 samples, sample (1) a vacuum-packed US frozen beef shank purchased from "Far Eastern AI Mart Jingmei Store", (2) beef brisket purchased from "Hongzhu Beef Shop", (3) US beef rib (brisket) strips purchased from "Muzha Market 2nd floor (vendor with back to the stairs)", and (4) US beef rib strips purchased from "Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Xinyi Store", a total of 4 samples, tested positive for "ractopamine" ranging between 1.49 and 8.08 ppb.
In addition, (5) US prime boneless beef short ribs purchased from the "JASONS" supermarket, and (6) US prime Black Angus beef brisket purchased from "Breeze Center", 2 samples, had detected amounts below 1 ppb. All 6 of the above samples were produced in the United States.
Also detected in traditional markets - will warning labels work?
Among the samples that tested positive for "ractopamine" this time, besides meat from hypermarkets and supermarkets, 2 samples from traditional markets (No. 2 and No. 3) also tested positive for "ractopamine" at 4.52 ppb and 1.56 ppb respectively, showing that beef containing leanness-enhancing drugs has already spread across all kinds of channels, not only chain channels or steak houses. A homemaker buying groceries at the market might also buy problematic beef from a familiar vendor, and food safety is very much at risk.
In the various discussions over whether to open up imports of US beef with leanness-enhancing drugs, there was once a proposal that "assuming imports are opened up, a warning-label method will be used to let consumers know it contains leanness-enhancing drugs and consider for themselves whether to buy", and the 16-character premise for lifting the ban announced by the Executive Yuan on the 5th also included "mandatory labeling". The problem is that this amounts to handing the responsibility for honest labeling to the operators and handing the responsibility for risk control to the general public - can that really solve the problem? Moreover, not all consumers buy pre-packaged meat at large chain channels; can vendors in traditional markets also be required to honestly label unpackaged meat? And what about beef already made into dishes in restaurants of all sizes - how is that labeled? If warning-label measures cannot be implemented across these different consumption patterns, and the government has no method to require operators to truthfully disclose information, then there is no need at all to discuss opening up US beef with leanness-enhancing drugs through a warning mechanism.
This round of test results also led the Consumers' Foundation to notice a phenomenon: after excluding the 9 samples produced in the United States, there were still 4 meat products from Australia and 2 from Taiwan, none of which tested positive for "ractopamine". Australia is likewise a country that permits the use of "ractopamine", with a limit not exceeding 50 ppb, which shows that "permitting use does not equal compulsory use", yet several of the tested US beef samples had residues. Is there really any necessity for the livestock industry to use leanness-enhancing drugs? Consumers have their own answer in mind!
The Consumers' Foundation calls for
1. The results of this test have once again cast a stain on the already much-questioned effectiveness of the "three controls and five checks". Since leanness-enhancing drugs have not yet been formally permitted at this stage, for the meat products found this time to contain leanness-enhancing drugs, health authorities should still exercise their public authority to trace their sources and understand the flow of meat from the source suppliers, truly acting as a gatekeeper for consumers.
2. The Executive Yuan recently announced, with lightning speed, the conditional lifting of the ban on beef with leanness-enhancing drugs, which makes one question whether the government's much-vaunted convening of expert meetings in recent times was merely a feint. And in this wave of controversy over leanness-enhancing drugs, a search of the press releases posted on the website of the Executive Yuan Consumer Protection Office found only one item, "Executive Yuan Consumer Protection Office coordinates handling of the removal and recall of Yuhe US beef containing leanness-enhancing drugs and related matters (2012/02/16)", whose gist was merely that the office had immediately notified consumer protection officers in each county and city to go to hypermarkets and other channels to find out whether the problematic US beef had indeed been removed from shelves.
In 2009, when our country faced the expansion of US beef imports to additional cuts, the then Executive Yuan Consumer Protection Commission, when appearing before the Legislative Yuan for questioning, clearly stated that it did not wish to and did not agree to the import of risky US beef cuts! The Consumers' Foundation hopes the Consumer Protection Office can truly fulfill its function of safeguarding consumer rights and demonstrate more concrete action.
3. Consumers are advised to buy meat with a clear place of origin, or even meat accompanied by a complete food traceability record; and food service operators should require their meat suppliers to provide safety certification for the meat before purchasing, in order to protect their own reputation.
Opening up US beef AIT: The Ma administration had long made a promise by Now news 2012.03.08
Facing the issue of US beef containing leanness-enhancing drugs knocking at the door, the Ma administration has repeatedly reiterated that it made no promise to the US side, has no timetable, and has no preset position. However, William Stanton, director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Taipei Office, said in a media interview today (the 8th) that the Taiwan government had promised progress.
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