Health concerns raised as Taiwan detects growth drug in US beef
Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it found the beef tainted with the growth enhancer in a restaurant owned by Wowprime, prompting authorities to increase checks on US meat imports. An official at Wowprime said it had destroyed all of the 203kg of tainted US beef.
There is zero tolerance for feed additives such as zilpaterol in much of Asia and Europe due to concerns about the side effects of such drugs, used to add muscle weight to animals.
Feed additives have been the focus of attention since a video appeared in the US in August showing animals struggling to walk and with other signs of distress after taking a growth drug.
South Korea suspended some US beef imports after detecting zilpaterol in meat supplied by a unit of JBS USA this month and Taiwan found US meat with the same drug.
The detection of the additive has raised concerns it may still be in the supply chain despite pharmaceutical firm Merck &halting sales of Zilmax, the top-selling zilpaterol-based additive, on Aug 16.
The US Department of Agriculture has said a Swift Beef Company plant in Cactus, Texas, is not eligible to ship beef to South Korea after the country detected growth drug in its meat.
Zilpaterol is a beta-agonist, a kind of feed additive that can add as much as 30 pounds of saleable meat to an animal in the weeks before slaughter. Developed as asthma drugs for humans, the drugs, in a decade of use, have helped bolster the ability to produce more beef with fewer cattle in the US.
- Reuters
