Lean meat powder is highly harmful; farmers need to raise their vigilance

Should lean meat powder and American beef really be allowed in? Who exactly is guarding the safety of what the public eats?

According to the Department of Health (Apple Daily, 2/6/2012), "word is that the Department of Health is leaning toward four possible directions: handling beef and pork separately, a dual-track system for imported and domestic products, lifting all restrictions, or banning everything; experts will be invited to reassess in the future."

But before answering this question, let us first get to know what lean meat powder is.

Wikipedia says this: "Lean meat powder is a class of veterinary drugs; several drugs are called lean meat powder, such as ractopamine and clenbuterol. Adding lean meat powder to feed can increase the lean meat content of animals, reduce feed use, bring meat to market earlier, and lower costs."

So lean meat powder is not originally one specific drug, but a collective term for several drugs, and it even sounds quite perfect: more lean meat, less feed, and lower costs!

To confirm this further, we asked Sister Guimei of Sanjiu Ranch, who, in order to raise pork she herself can trust, took bold action to oversee everything from the feed mill to the pasture in a full chain of control.

"…lean meat powder is actually a drug that converts fat into expanding muscle fibers," Sister Guimei said on the other end of the phone.

Yes, simply put, lean meat powder has the effect of converting the body's fat into strong muscle.

It is just that when humans consume it, it must come with guidelines, such as taking it after exercise, how much water to drink after taking it, and so on, to avoid residues and other side effects. But like the cruel method of force-feeding ducks, much livestock farming gives large amounts of drugs or food before harvest so that poultry and animals gain more water and more lean meat.

There is no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

Looking back at Wikipedia's further explanation: "Lean meat powder belongs to the beta-agonists (β-agonist); it can promote protein synthesis, making pigs grow more lean meat and less fat, and can be added to pig feed for long-term consumption by pigs; pigs raised this way have a fit build and yield higher profits. Farmers can mix lean meat powder into pig feed and feed it to pigs, making pork rapidly grow lean meat. After pigs eat lean meat powder, it mainly accumulates in the pig liver, pig lungs, and other places. If it is not used according to regulations and the residue level is too high, after eating large amounts of pig liver and pig lungs - even if cooked - symptoms of poisoning such as nausea, dizziness, muscle tremors, palpitations, and rising blood pressure may immediately appear."

Lean meat powder is just like American beef: no one knows whether eating it today might lead to mad cow disease, and no one knows whether eating some part of a pig that used lean meat powder might cause asthma or allergies. Maybe you are lucky and your constitution is good, or maybe you are unlucky and today you hit a streak of bad luck, but why on earth should consumers have to bear this risk?

Taiwan absolutely cannot compete with other exporting countries on volume in any food market; the only path is upgrading quality. I remember visiting Sanjiu Ranch last year for a production report, going from the Taichung processing plant to the Yunlin pasture, and seeing all along the way with my own eyes how Mr. Hong and Sister Guimei, for the simple wish of "raising pork we dare to eat ourselves," had to pour in enormous effort - my goodness, just how much problematic pork have we eaten in daily life?

Upstream, they regularly buy tested pig breeds from foreign breeding companies to avoid Taiwan's pig breeds that have long been vertically and cross-mixed over generations; midstream, they buy land for controlled park-style raising and set up their own feed mill to control the diet; downstream, they also set up their own processing plant for packaging and control. The final result is unforgettable deliciousness with no gamey smell, pure, and the moment it is placed in a frying pan it releases a large amount of meat juice with a satisfying chew.

But this kind of deliciousness may, after lean meat powder is allowed in the future, cause pork quality and prices to drop sharply, seriously affecting Taiwan's domestic pork market and further blocking the possibility of export.

But the worst off are still consumers.

Think of the mother who has worked hard through ten months of pregnancy and has to eat kidneys and pig liver during postpartum confinement, or family members who are short on blood because of illness or menstruation and need to eat pig liver to replenish blood, or the father who works hard and the son who studies until exhausted and also wants to buy pig heart for a tonic - and it turns out these organ meats are problematic? Then after eating them, the substances accumulated in the mother's milk are passed on to the next generation, making the more you nourish yourself the worse it gets, and you do not even know why. How far-reaching and how tragic this would be.

So how exactly should consumers protect themselves?

Just like facing all ingredients now:

1. In daily life, please buy from vendors you know well and who are willing to explain where the pork on their stall comes from; remember, no one will say the pork they sell is not from black-haired pigs.

2. At special times when you need to buy organ meats to cook (for example, for pregnant women, to replenish blood, or during postpartum confinement), please still buy from trusted brand merchants with inspections and production traceability, and so on.

3. Please change the notion that "only warm-body pork is the best," because neither you nor I are operators who go to the wholesale central market at four or five in the morning to buy pork. Meat that is properly processed and immediately frozen is actually better, whether from land or sea.

4. If you buy warm-body pork, please portion it and freeze it immediately when you get home; if it is frozen pork (such as Sanjiu Ranch packaging), it can be placed in a chilled fresh-keeping box. By no means thaw all of it at once, then put back what you cannot finish, repeatedly thawing and freezing, because no matter how good the meat is, it will be useless that way.

5. Lean meat is good, but actually pork is fragrant only when it has a bit of fat, and the human body is not cold only when it has a bit of fat. Rather than rejecting natural fat, it is better to eat one less chicken cutlet or order one less portion of salt-and-pepper chicken.

6. Please remember that our consumption decides the food we eat.