Rejecting problematic US beef, civil society groups in Taiwan, China, put forward a joint position
Editor's note: The Consumers' Foundation, Chinese Taipei today (2/20) released a press release, "Defend the right to health: reject problematic US beef barging in!" The text cites various data and expert opinions, specifically pointing out the various safety concerns of imported US beef. The Consumers' Foundation and multiple civil society groups put forward joint demands, summarized as follows:
- The government should not yield to US political and economic pressure; all information and the negotiation process must be transparent and open to public scrutiny;
- Local businesses should take proactive action (such as labeling food traceability) to protect consumers' right to health;
- Taiwan, China consumers should actively express their opinions, unite consumer power, and express to the US government that consumers in every global village have the right to safety: "Defend the right to health: reject problematic US beef barging in!"
The following is the full press release issued by the Consumers' Foundation. (Image source / United States Environmental Protection Agency.)
Defend the right to health: reject problematic US beef barging in!
Even in the 21st century, the story of coercion by the powerful, in which "when the nest is overturned, no egg remains unbroken," plays out again and again! The issue of US beef imports and safety concerns is the most concrete example. Since 2005 it has smoldered on, with the US side always pressing forward step by step with powerful political and economic pressure, our government retreating step by step, and public opinion repeatedly proving ineffective, until there is no room left to retreat and the space for protecting citizens' right to health is lost.
The protagonist of this controversy, "lean meat powder," also called Paylean, has under the Agriculture Council's ostrich-like "rectification of names" been renamed ractopamine (Ractopamine, the ingredient name, the scientific name). This substance is a feed additive added to animal feed to promote the growth of "lean meat" in livestock; its trade name is "Paylean," an animal drug produced by the US company Eli Lilly. There are more than 40 kinds of lean meat powder; ractopamine (Paylean), recently "renamed" by the Department of Health, was approved for use in the United States in 1999.
Ractopamine was originally developed as an asthma medication, but because its effects were poor, it was unexpectedly found to have a "lean meat" effect in farmed animals, capable of burning off fat and causing muscle fibers to swell and enlarge. If it is continuously added to feed during the four weeks before cattle and pigs are slaughtered, it can reduce fat and increase lean meat.
Because lean meat powder is a chemically synthesized, non-natural product, it can neither extend shelf life nor inhibit bacterial growth, and has no disease-treating function; it exists only to make meat look better on the market. In addition, there is no formal, adequate human risk assessment research, so whether it will place a burden on the human body in the future remains unknown. Therefore, a total of more than 160 countries prohibit its use, far more than the 20-plus countries that permit it, and most of those are major livestock-exporting countries. Taiwan, China and the EU also completely prohibit its use.
This is also the basis of Dr. Lin Jie-liang's statement vigorously defending the health of the people: "It may trigger palpitations and promote cardiovascular disease and other side effects. For people with heart and cardiovascular disease, there is no need to ingest enough to reach poisoning levels; a normal heartbeat of 70 to 90 beats per minute, once accelerated to more than 100, may cause illness or even death."
It is worth noting that although the government has consistently declared that ractopamine (Paylean) is metabolized quickly and is safe, Professor Chou Chin-cheng points out that although Paylean is metabolized quickly in animals, with about half of the content excreted within six hours, the lean meat powder remaining in muscle or internal organs after slaughter does not easily disappear, and heating and cooking do not easily destroy it. If animals raised with lean meat powder are slaughtered without an appropriate withdrawal period and residues remain in the meat, they may be ingested by consumers.
Moreover, what is infuriating is that US beef produced using ractopamine is exported to weaker countries, such as Taiwan, China or other Third World countries; meat without added additives is reserved for the domestic market and for strong countries with high standards, such as the EU. This posture of suppression and forced sales clearly ignores the human right that all people are equal!
Especially in the Chinese-speaking world, where people like to eat internal organs such as lungs and kidneys (pork kidneys), the threat is especially great for women before and after pregnancy, infants and young children, the elderly, and frail consumers; mainland China has indeed presented monitoring and testing data showing that internal organs, especially lungs, still have high residues, and therefore opposes the setting of standards for maximum residual limits (maximum residual limit, MRL) of veterinary drug residues. In addition, in recent years, border and market beef sampling in Taiwan, China has from time to time found lean meat powder residues, especially related to imported US meat products. For example, in the previous year (the 100th year of the Republic of China), of 59 market beef samples tested, 10 had Paylean residues, a failure rate of 1/6, all of them US beef; of 172 batches inspected at the border, 45 were non-compliant, also US beef. The implementation of the "three controls and five checks" has achieved only partial results at the border and domestically; the original intent was to block and decide the battle abroad, that is, to control from the source, but it clearly failed to reach the target and is also insufficient to protect the health of the people. What the government calls source management is simply empty talk. (Note: The "three controls and five checks" control procedure means control at the three ends of "source," "border" and "market," and gatekeeping through procedures such as "verifying certification documents," "clearly labeling product information," "opening boxes for inspection," "food safety testing" and "real-time information verification.")
Is there better news on the consumer market side, which is closely tied to consumers?
On February 4, the media outlet Next TV purchased one US frozen beef rib finger from each of the Neihu RT-Mart and Carrefour stores, two items in total, and sent them for testing. Among them, the "US frozen beef rib finger" purchased at Neihu RT-Mart tested positive for ractopamine. On February 13, the Taipei City Health Department tested 6 meat products from hypermarkets for lean meat powder, and 2 of them, namely "US chilled Angus beef rib finger (G)" from the Neihu RT-Mart store and "US beef strips (beef rib finger)" from the Neihu Carrefour store, were found to contain ractopamine. Government gatekeeping was effectively broken. From February 14 to 15, consumer protection officers and Health Department personnel in Taichung City inspected more than a dozen hypermarkets in Taichung City and found that some US beef rib fingers imported by "Yun Ho Foods Company" were still being sold on the shelves. After discovery, they demanded removal from the shelves, photographed the evidence, and scheduled a follow-up inspection. Yun Ho Foods imported beef was seized in New Taipei City for containing lean meat powder residues. Therefore, it can be seen that gatekeeping on the market end and the cleanup procedure for recalling and removing problematic products from shelves have also not been active or comprehensive. How can consumer health be protected?!
The Consumers' Foundation further points out that if the detection rate in hypermarkets is on the high side, then what about places where sampling and gatekeeping are simply impossible but sales volumes are large, such as campuses, the military, fast-food restaurants, breakfast shops, restaurants, snack shops, catering, banquets... and even beef burgers from roadside breakfast carts, where traces of imported US beef are everywhere (please see the Department of Health Food and Drug Administration's beef origin voluntary labeling section http://consumer.fda.gov.tw/Food/BeefIndicate.aspx?nodeID=183#). What kind of scene is that? Just thinking about it makes one's scalp tingle!
Therefore, the Consumers' Foundation points out that since the government can neither decide the battle abroad nor control at the border, US beef entering the consumer market is like entering uninhabited territory. How can the government defend consumer safety? If consumers are anxious and uneasy, and cannot even speak of a sense of safety, how can a sense of happiness be given to the people?!
In fact, Professor Chen Shun-sheng, honorary vice superintendent of Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, points out that in addition to lean meat powder, US beef also warrants observation for infectious prion variant protein (also known as mad cow disease, one of the causes of human Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease through the food chain) and hemorrhagic, lethal O157 E. coli problems; and the biggest problem remains that the government's testing technology and capacity are both severely insufficient. Professor Chen Shun-sheng states that in 1982 an O157 E. coli outbreak occurred in the United States, at which time it often caused bloody diarrhea in children under about 10 years old and the elderly. In the United States there was an epidemic outbreak caused by improper hamburger cooking, and in Japan there were also deaths from eating raw beef liver; in the United States there are about 20,000 cases and 250 deaths each year.
Therefore, Professor Chen Shun-sheng points out that in addition to the protagonist of this controversy, ractopamine (Paylean, lean meat powder), other toxic additives or derived toxic substances, such as O157, growth hormones, and prion variant protein... all need to be included in the scope of government gatekeeping.
Professor Chen Shun-sheng states that as of the end of January of the 101st year of the Republic of China, there were 451 suspected cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the country and 278 confirmed cases; 1 case of human Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was imported from abroad (long-term residence in the United Kingdom). Professor Chen sternly points out that from the 90th to the 97th year of the Republic of China, the incidence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was 0.48 to 0.62 per million, but in the past 5 years it has clearly gradually risen to 1.00 to 1.13 (please see the table). Apart from increased public vigilance and improved diagnosis, when the timeline is compared, there is a potential causal risk that cannot be ruled out in relation to the first US mad cow disease case in 2003, after the incubation period, combined with the rise after the country agreed to import US beef!!
Regarding the threat to consumer health, which by no means can be ensured no matter how one looks at it, the Consumers' Foundation is deeply worried. Therefore, in recent days it has joined with the Homemakers United Foundation, the Taiwan Homemakers United Consumer Cooperative, the Watch Taiwan Association, the Taiwan Society for the Study of Animal Society, the National Federation of Dental Associations of the Republic of China, the National Association for the Promotion of Community Colleges, the Life Care Association of the Republic of China, and other units in cooperation, expressing serious concern and speaking out to government administrative departments, the Legislative Yuan, and consumers, to defend consumers' right to health.
The Consumers' Foundation points out that at this time the government should show more responsibility by strengthening testing and forcefully blocking the import of risky US beef, rather than creating another issue and opening the door to imports of beef containing lean meat powder. If it insists on ignoring public opinion and acting arbitrarily, the Consumers' Foundation does not rule out seeking international forces, requesting support from Consumers International (CI) and US animal protection organizations, and, with consumer health, humanitarianism and animal welfare as the main appeals, pressing the muddled US government to change course, demanding that it no longer harm the health rights of people in other countries for economic benefit, and further that it not be allowed to add useless additives but pay attention to animal welfare, thereby relatively ensuring consumer safety.
Joint appeal by NGOs
Government
1. Do not yield to US political and economic pressure, demanding that consumers grudgingly accept the import of problematic goods and then sacrificing consumer health with empty slogans such as "special sales zones," "origin labeling," and "warning labels."
2. The government should take the lead in gathering the strength of experts and scholars, collect international professional opinions, and negotiate with the US government on the basis of reason.
3. All negotiations and discussions with the US side and all sectors of society should follow the principle of openness and be recorded verbatim, to be subject to historical public judgment.
4. Quickly strengthen border inspection and gatekeeping capacity, and reset customs inspection procedures. For imported goods with safety concerns, it must have the responsibility and ability to strictly guard the gate for the people!
Industry
1. In the international literature, the risks of US beef still cannot be taken lightly. To protect consumer health and a clean environment, all conscientious businesses upstream, midstream and downstream should launch a movement to refuse to stock and sell it, taking proactive action to protect consumers' right to health.
2. To let consumers consume with peace of mind, it is called for to implement origin labeling and build trust and mutual assistance between businesses and consumers.
3. Encourage the import and purchase of US beef with safety certification from testing and screening for "lean meat powder," "O157 E. coli," and "prion protein," and, in the spirit of food traceability, label it completely, so that consumers have the right to know and to choose.
Consumers
A careful review of the international literature shows that the risks of US beef are plain to see. Risks such as lean meat powder, growth hormones, and O157 E. coli are all related to the US livestock industry's large-scale production without attention to safety and hygiene, and its inability to conduct rigorous testing and gatekeeping. Because the US livestock industry also has powerful votes and donation capacity, it presses the government to force-sell goods with safety concerns to other countries, seeking profit and harming the health of people in other countries. Therefore, all consumers in Taiwan, China should face up to this unequal phenomenon, rely on themselves, actively express their opinions, and unite consumer power to express to the US government that consumers in every global village have the right to safety!
The Consumers' Foundation together with the Homemakers United Foundation, the Taiwan Homemakers United Consumer Cooperative, the Watch Taiwan Association, the Taiwan Society for the Study of Animal Society, the National Federation of Dental Associations of the Republic of China, the National Association for the Promotion of Community Colleges, the Life Care Association of the Republic of China, and other units advocate:
"Defend the right to health: reject problematic US beef barging in!"
Consumers' Foundation, Chinese Taipei
For more articles, please see
The lean meat powder incident file: key facts, grasp them at any time! by News Market
The US beef lean meat powder issue concerns the health of all citizens and the future of Taiwan, China's livestock industry. Regarding this issue and the risks we do not know about, News Market is launching a series of reports, hoping to make information more transparent and strengthen the power of oversight; at the same time, we will also compile relevant information one after another in the form of an incident file for readers' reference. Please all continue to pay attention together.