Meat Testing

The synthetic hormones approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the 1950s for use in factory cattle and sheep – banned in Europe since 1988 – increase the animals’ growth rates and the efficiency by which they convert their feed into meat. The FDA also set tolerance levels for the maximum amount of hormones permitted in food and the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) monitors the meat.

Testing turns up very few violations, but the extent of sampling has historically been small, usually only a few hundred samples per year. A 2010 Inspector General report said, “The National Residue Program (NRP) is not accomplishing its mission of monitoring the food supply for harmful residues.” Besides hormones, FSIS tests for veterinary drugs, pesticides, and heavy metals – including penicillin, arsenic, dioxin, and copper. “While cooking meat properly can destroy pathogens, no amount of cooking will destroy residues.  In some cases, heat may actually break residues down into components that are more harmful to consumers.”^[1] FSIS does not attempt to recall meat, even when its tests have confirmed the excessive presence of veterinary drugs.

Last year, the Government Accountability Office reported that from 2000 through 2011, FSIS found a low rate of pesticide residue violations, but they did not test meat, poultry, and processed egg products for all pesticides with established EPA tolerance levels.^[2]

We’ve heard a lot about how little regulations are monitored, and hopefully these reports and recommendations will increase testing. This week Obama has recommended $1.6 billion for the 2016 budget to go toward food safety. Residues do not only affect those people who still buy factory meat. Factory animal waste gets into drinking water, sea water (also affecting farmed fish), and onto crops. More on cow poop another day, I promise. Tomorrow I’ll make up for the frustrating truth about factory meat by making a meatloaf with a nice, grass-fed beef and some local turkey.