The report on “Banned Drugs in Your Meat” by Consumer Reports was released on August 29 and immediately followed by a press release from the USDA in the voice of Carmen Rottenberg, Acting Deputy Undersecretary for Food Safety, and she used those words in the title to express her disgust with the report.

Meatingplace covered both releases on August 29 also.

Rottenberg’s response was enlightening, and maddening in that CR did not listen when USDA tried to explain to them the reports were presumptive and follow up testing specifically for the banned drugs were negative.

You can read it in its entirety on the FSIS web page.

We had a similar episode back in my days, and our press release called it “junk science.”

But what I want to do today is take a closer look at the CR report, and share some quotes with readers that might convince them this is a lot to do about nothing, putting the USDA press release aside for the moment.

The CR release starts out; “Ketamine, a hallucinogenic party drug and experimental antidepressant. Phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory deemed too risky for human use. Chloramphenicol, a powerful antibiotic linked to potentially deadly anemia.”

It claims these are being found in beef, poultry and pork consumed in the U.S.

First of all, Ketamine’s main claim to fame is as an anesthetic used in both humans and animals, noted for its wide margin of safety. Use as a party drug is of course illegal, and it does wonders for depression when prescribed by a health care provider.

If Rottenberg is wrong and there are traces on occasion (I doubt she is wrong, BTW), it definitely will not be in a high enough amount to make you sleepy or happy.

Phenylbutazone gained FDA approval for use in humans in 1949. I prescribed a lot of it back in the days of practicing in rural Nebraska until better, safer anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprophen came along. It is still used in dogs and horses and in the United Kingdom for humans with ankylosing spondylitis. So “too risky for human use” is not quite accurate.

Again, if there were a small amount in your chicken breast meat, I doubt your osteoarthritis pain will go away. Nor will your white blood cells.

But the real kicker to me was trying so scare us by saying chloramphenicol was powerful enough to cause deadly anemia. A form of anemia called aplastic anemia has been rarely reported after high dose, long term therapy for a deadly infection, but not when a human has been exposed to only a very small trace.

All this reminds me of the melamine scare back in the 2007 or so time frame. Those not wanting us to consume cows, pigs and chickens jumped all over that baby but common sense prevailed.

CR concludes in its “What Consumers Can Do” with this: “…research suggests that many Americans eat more meat than recommended…..The potential problems identified here may be enough for some to consider eating less meat.”

I kid you not---The Consumer Reports has spoken.

I do not think I will change my eating habits, and in fact will be grilling a USDA Prime New York Strip from a frozen state shortly after I close this down.

That “infotainment” and “pseudoscience” story by Consumer Reports

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