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Agricultural News


Feed Additive Ractopamine Approval Fails Again

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:00:21 CDT

Feed Additive Ractopamine Approval Fails Again Ractopamine, a feed additive used to promote leanness in both pork and beef recently failed to be approved by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. This feed additive, ractopamine, is used by Elanco Animal Health in feed for beef and pork, with Optaflexx brand for beef and Paylean brand for pork. The National Pork Producers Council and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association were both disappointed with the failure of the feed additive approval.


The Codex Alimentarius Commission, which was established by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization and its World Health Organization to promote food safety and fair practices in trade, refused to adopt a science-based standard for ractopamine. Establishment of a standard will be held at the final stage before approval for the fourth consecutive year.


Ractopamine, like all feed additives, was evaluated and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and has been approved for use in 26 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines and South Korea. A Codex panel of international scientists, including scientists from the European Union, three times has confirmed the safety of ractopamine and reaffirmed the safety of the product at this week's commission meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.


Despite those findings and the support of the United States, Canada and countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific Islands for adoption of the standard, opposition from the European Union, China, Thailand and Russia blocked it for non-scientific reasons outside the scope of the Codex. Except for Russia, those countries ban imports of pork from pigs fedractopamine.


"U.S. pork producers are very disappointed that the Codex commission succumbed to the bullying of countries that had no scientific reasons for opposing adoption of a standard for ractopamine," said NPPC President Doug Wolf, a producer from Lancaster, Wis. "This is a scientifically proven safe product, and the commission failed again to act on its mandate to base standards and guidelines on science. This lack of action calls into question Codex's legitimacy as the international reference body for scientific standards for food."


National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) Chief Veterinarian Elizabeth Parker said it is extremely disappointing that the Codex Alimentarius Commission failed to act on the adoption of science-based standards for ractopamine.


"The CAC was founded on science-based principles with the specific function to protect human health and ensure fair trade practices in food trade by setting food safety standards and guidance based on the best available scientific knowledge," Parker said. "The safety of ractopamine has been confirmed three times by Codex's own panel of international scientists and is based on exhaustive scientific evidence supporting international maximum residue limits on ractopamine."


According to Parker, the United States and a broad array of Codex members in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific Islands worked to maintain the integrity of Codex by supporting the adoption of the ractopamine standard. However, she noted that for the fourth consecutive year, other members blocked the advancement of action on ractopamine due to non-science based factors.


"The countries that stayed true to the science-based Codex mandate, including the United States, should be commended," Parker said. "Unfortunately, the failure this week is broader than inaction on a specific standard. It is indicative of a growing problem. Pushed by the insistence of a few, Codex is straying outside its mission, which ultimately impacts farmers, ranchers and consumers worldwide."


All international science-based standard setting bodies and producers are concerned with the proliferation of private standards, increased non-tariff barriers to trade and how these additionally affect food security. Parker said if the foremost body, formed in 1963 solely to set international science-based food safety standards, no longer has credibility in its determinations, then it has failed and the entire world could suffer.


"The inability of Codex to keep political ideologies and scientifically unfounded interests out of its decision making process causes great concern among U.S. cattlemen who take pride in safely producing much of the world's high quality and affordable beef supply," she said. "The failures this week in Geneva should be a wakeup call for all of us. There's still time to correct it and give countries, crop and livestock producers and consumers around the world the trustworthy food safety resources we all deserve. This and future generations cannot afford continued failure."



Click here for more information on Optaflexx: Ractopamine for Beef.


Click here for more information on Paylean: Ractopamine for Swine.



   

 

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