Ractopamine is a leanness-enhancing agent that is approved for use as a livestock feed additive in the US. US authorities approved its use in swine feed in 1999, cattle feed in 2003 and turkey feed in 2008. Ractopamine is used to raise feed efficiency, increase the bodyweight of livestock and raise the proportion of lean meat.
Ractopamine’s side effects on pigs are related to the dosage given. They include excessively rapid heartbeat, dilated blood vessels, skeletal muscle tremor, disturbed metabolism, bronchial hyperresponsiveness and aggravated respiratory tract inflammation. The drug’s side effects in humans include abnormally rapid heartbeat, increased systolic blood pressure, increased cardiac output and aggravated heart palpitations.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) set up by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the WHO is recognized internationally as the organization that sets global standards for food safety, and its hygiene standards are the ones recognized by the WTO’s Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures for arbitrating conflicts involving trade and health issues.
The EU is of the opinion that the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives cannot set maximum daily permitted intakes of ractopamine based on data from tests done on just six human subjects. Consequently, the CAC has not been able to set a maximum residue level for ractopamine in meat products based on the committee’s risk assessment, and therefore does not at present advocate setting an internationally uniform standard for residues based on the committee’s assessment.
In meetings of the UN and the WTO, China has repeatedly raised the discovery in animal experiments of very high concentrations of ractopamine residue in pig lungs, and it has expressed worries about ractopamine residues in other internal organs. China says it will only begin to consider the proposal that it set maximum residue levels for ractopamine when these related risk assessments and safety issues have been fully addressed.
At the 34th Session of the CAC, which was held in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 4 to 9 last year, opinions were divided in discussions about maximum residue levels for ractopamine. The conference chairperson proposed a procedural vote on the question of whether to approve maximum residue limits for ractopamine through a vote. However, this motion was voted down by 68 to 59 in a secret ballot.
Up until now, US meat products must be tested and certified as containing zero ractopamine to be imported into countries that ban the use of the feed additive, such as the 27 EU member states, Taiwan, China and other countries that have not set maximum residue limits for ractopamine.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that ractopamine is harmless, which he is using to explain his government’s plan to lift the ban on imports of US beef containing ractopamine residues, is dishonest and does not stand up to examination.
The same can be said of the proposal to set maximum residue limits for ractopamine based on international standards, which Department of Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) has concocted to push through the Cabinet’s ill-conceived policy decisions about US beef.
Ma and Chiu’s proposals cannot serve as a scientific basis for risk assessment, or as a foundation for risk management policy decisions in a democratic society.
Chan Chang-chuan is a professor at National Taiwan University’s Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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