Are Banned Drugs Making Meat Unsafe to Eat?

Consumer Reports recently published an article entitled “Are Banned Drugs in Your Meat?”¹⁾https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/are-banned-drugs-in-your-meat/#drugs It’s a frightening lead-in question, with an even more frightening answer.

According to the data evaluated, Ketamine (party drug and experimental antidepressant), Phenylbutazone (an anti-inflammatory deemed too risky for human use), Chloramphenicol (a powerful antibiotic linked to potentially deadly anemia), and Nitroimidazoles (a potentially carcinogenic antifungal medication) are lurking in the U.S. poultry, beef, and pork supply.

Before you take meat off the menu, though, let’s take a closer look at exactly what these researchers found.

Overview

Consumer Reports (CR) did not perform these drug tests themselves. They instead evaluated data obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

Some of the data came from testing processes that have not been approved, or required, for use in U.S. meat inspections. So, there has been some pushback on the validity of the test results and data. However, the CR food safety scientists consider the data to be credible enough that further investigation and corrective action is necessary.

The CR food safety scientists set lower safe thresholds for these drugs in our meat supply than are found in current U.S. government regulations. So, not all of the violations identified were technically illegal. However, illegal levels of all four drugs were found.

Let’s take a look at what the data showed.

Chloramphenicol

The results for Chloramphenicol were perhaps the most disturbing. Out of 5,756 samples tested, 148 (or 2.6 percent) showed levels of the drug at greater than what the CR scientists considered healthy levels. Also, 25 of those 148 samples were higher than the current FSIS standards.

That might not seem like a lot, considering the sample size. However, according to the article:

This antibiotic, at any exposure level, can trigger life-threatening aplastic anemia, or the inability to produce enough new blood cells, in 1 in 10,000 people.

If you happen to be that 1 in 10,000 who is susceptible to aplastic anemia from exposure, then your next burger might be a death sentence. That’s a pretty disturbing thought.

Other Banned Drug Results

Ketamine was present at higher levels than considered safe by CR in 225 out of 4,313 samples—and at higher levels than considered safe by the FSIS in 15 of those samples. For Phenylbutazone, 24 of 1,448 samples were above the CR threshold and 1 sample was above the FSIS cutoff. For Nitroimidazoles 667 of 5,756 samples were above the CR threshold and 136 were above the FSIS standard.

All in, 177 samples were in violation of the USDA’s FSIS statutory limits and should not have legally been allowed into the food supply. And when measured against CR’s more stringent standards, 1,064 were unfit for human consumption.

The Most Frightening Part of All

If this data shocks you, then you probably haven’t been following food safety news very closely. Toxic and potentially lethal substances enter our food supply through various means every day—both legally and illegally.

For example, according to a Guardian report, recent USDA correspondence reveals that it is difficult to find any food, with the exception of broccoli, that does not contain residues of the carcinogenic herbicide glyphosate.²⁾https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/30/fda-weedkiller-glyphosate-in-food-internal-emails

Glyphosate is the same substance that just cost Monsanto $289 million in damages in a California lawsuit. Unfortunately, this is also the same substance that will cost Dwayne Johnson—the plaintiff in the case—his life from terminal cancer caused by using Roundup.³⁾https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/10/health/monsanto-johnson-trial-verdict/index.html

And who hasn’t heard about the fact that arsenic was intentionally used, with FDA approval, to fatten chickens for decades?⁴⁾https://www.fda.gov/animalveterinary/safetyhealth/productsafetyinformation/ucm257540.htm

For me, it’s frightening that reports like these are so common. It’s even more frightening how little ever gets done about them. The data is dismissed, discredited, or downplayed—and then eventually disappears until the next shocking set of statistics comes along.

However, the most frightening part about this particular set banned of drugs showing up in our meat supply is that we don’t know exactly how they are getting there.

How Do Banned Drugs Get in Our Meat Supply?

With toxic substances like glyphosate, we know exactly how it enters our food supply. It is sprayed on fields used to grow food. That food is then either eaten by us or eaten by livestock.

We also know that “less toxic” (term used by the FDA) organic arsenic was fed to chickens on purpose. It accumulated in their livers, and became the more toxic inorganic arsenic. We also know that, depending on how you interpret the data, potentially as many as 70% of broiler chickens may have contained toxic levels of arsenic!

But how exactly do drugs that are not supposed to be found in meat products end up there? We don’t spray Ketamine on our fields, do we? We don’t intentionally overdose our cows on banned substances, do we?

Well, there are a few theories that have gained traction that suggest maybe we do.

Background Exposure

One potential way banned drugs might end up in meat supplies is through “background exposure.” In other words, humans use and excrete these drugs in their urine and feces. That stuff then ends up in the sewer system.

Most sewage facilities are designed to filter and treat for things like life-threatening bacteria and solids—but not for drug residues. So, not all drug residues are removed during processing.

Some of those sewage byproducts end up in waterways and are then dispersed through the soil via runoff or irrigation. Some of them end up recirculated back into our municipal water supplies for use in our homes and businesses.

The drugs are then consumed by the animals in their water supply or in food irrigated by that water supply.

There is a growing body of research proving that drug residues from human sewage impact the reproduction cycles and deformity rates in aquatic life.  So, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to think that these same substances might end up in our meat supply through similar channels.

I don’t know about you, but considering how many pharmaceutical drugs are prescribed on an annual basis, I have to question how many other banned drugs might eventually be discovered in our meat supply.

Consider these three facts together:

1. These four banned drugs are already in our meat supply through background exposure.
2. Opioids are in our sewage at measurable rates.⁵⁾https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sewage-is-helping-cities-flush-out-the-opioid-crisis
3. And opioids are already finding their way into shellfish from sewage runoff.⁶⁾https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/25/health/mussels-opioids-bn/index.html

Isn’t it fair to assume that opioids and other harmful drugs have or will soon make their way into our meat, too? If trace elements of less-used drugs are entering our meat supply through background exposure, then it seems at least possible that the Opioid Epidemic might have an impact on our meat supply and municipal water supplies also.

I don’t have the equipment to perform my own tests on this theory, but this new data from Consumer Reports certainly has me worried about what other unexpected drugs might be lurking in our food supply.

It also makes me wonder how much of this stuff we are getting direct exposure to every time we turn on our municipal tap.

Contaminated Feed

These drugs may also be entering our meat supply in the form of animal feed. Some experts believe this is the most likely pathway for contamination. Essentially, this can happen two ways:

1. Animals that were given the drugs get used as feedstock for other animals.
2. Feed mills that process food for animals we don’t eat, such as dogs or cats, accidentally incorporate the drugs into feed stock for animals we do eat.

My question about this method is, why in the world would feed mills or farmers be giving any animals—livestock or pets—drugs that can be life-threatening to 1 out of 10,000 people in the first place? How is there even a chance for them to enter our food supply?

Which leads me to the next most likely way these drugs make it into meat . . .  but first:

Really Scary Thought Sidebar

If background exposure and contaminated feed are the most likely transmission methods, then even those of us who raise our own livestock at home might be at risk for feeding our animals banned drugs.

Personally, some of my feed is sourced from mills that make other pet mixes. Whether I like it or not, some of the inputs of my local feed even come from big suppliers like Cargill.

Also, if you happen to water your garden, or your livestock, with a municipal water supply, there’s a good chance that water could contain exactly the same stuff that might be contaminating commercial livestock.

Intentional Misuse

There is at least the feasible likelihood that some farmers, feed supply mills, or other people involved in the long chain supply of industrial meat processing are intentionally introducing toxic levels of these substances into our meat supply.

Given all the legal (yet still potentially toxic) drugs that are allowed to be used in relation to livestock, it seems crazy that anyone would resort to illegal drug use in raising livestock. Yet, we know for a fact that systemic abuse of antibiotics is rampant in the raising of industrial livestock.

Both the FDA and the CDC are actively promoting more judicious use of antibiotics in animals raised for meat. This is because overuse of antibiotics is having catastrophic health consequences.

According to the CDC:

Antibiotic resistance is one of the world’s most pressing public health problems. Illnesses that were once easily treatable with antibiotics are becoming more difficult to cure and more expensive to treat.⁷⁾https://www.cdc.gov/narms/faq.html

Despite the growing concerns over antibiotic resistance, overuse and illegal use of drugs as preventative maintenance is still extremely common in commercial livestock production. In fact, using antibiotics for large groups of animals for disease prevention is even still legally allowed.

(Counterfeit drugs, coming mainly from China and India, is another way that these drugs may enter the meat supply.)

What Can You Do?

Whenever I read reports like this, the first thing I want to know is how to minimize my risks. Unfortunately, these problems are so pervasive and difficult to isolate that it can be tricky to find solutions.

Here are a few ideas that might help limit exposure:

Reduce Meat Consumption to Healthy Levels

According to the Consumer Reports article, one way to reduce your risks from these contaminants is to stick to the recommended daily dose of meat. Since many Americans, in particular, may overconsume meat products, we can cut our chances of exposure just by reducing the amount eaten.

(Of course, even the soundness of the recommended daily dose of meat is up for debate. Here’s an interesting op-ed on the topic by a cardiologist.)

Raise Your Own Livestock as Conscientiously as You Can

As backyard food producers, we can reduce some of our risks by controlling the feed and water sources our animals have access to.

For example, if contaminated feed by way of animal protein products or a dirty mill are likely methods of transmission, avoiding commercially produced feed may reduce risk.

This is really hard for most of us small-scale homesteaders to do, though. Even if you don’t buy commercially formulated feed, things like bagged sunflower seeds, cracked corn, scratch, and powdered proteins are often mill-processed as well and come with associated risks.

Growing your own grains is one potential answer. Sourcing grains and hay directly from farmers you trust who do their own processing is another possibility. Though, again, this solution can be hard to implement.

Giving livestock access to pasture that has not been potentially contaminated by drug-laden water sources can cut down on the amount of supplemental feed they need. Raising your own insects and fodder using rain or filtered water might be another avenue to reduce dependence on potentially contaminated feed sources.

Organic feed has not been proven to be safer than non-organic supplies in relation to banned drug content. However, the USDA Organic oversight standards are more stringent than those used for traditional feed. So, using organic feed supplements may have some benefits.

Read More: “Meat Rabbits: Raise Half Your Protein in 10 Minutes Per Day (VIDEO)”

Buy Responsibly

Similar to raising your own livestock, sourcing meats from local farmers you trust can give you more control over the quality of your food.

Grass-fed and pasture-raised animals need less commercial feed. Large pastures typically aren’t irrigated, either. Also, animals grazed on pasture may drink well water or rainwater, rather than from the municipal supply, which can help (depending on groundwater quality).

Knowing and being able to trust your farmer also cuts down on the risks for intentional misuse.

Labeled organic, grass-fed, or pasture-raised meats from large suppliers are better than nothing. But, having direct contact with your food suppliers leads to greater personal, social, and cultural accountability for our food supply. This, in turn, leads to less corruption in the process.

Filter Your Water

If these drugs are hitting our meat supply through sewage processing, then they are likely impacting the entire municipal water system.  Filtering water for you and your livestock may help reduce exposure. Make sure to choose a filtration system rated for removing trace drugs.

Collecting rainwater and watering your gardens with it may also help. Depending on where you live, though, rainwater may also have issues (e.g., acid rain).

The Bottom Line

We live in a world where it is almost impossible to make perfect choices related to our food supply or health.

Growing and raising your own food gives you more control over the process. Even when you have to make a compromise, like using some commercial feed or watering your garden with municipal water, I am certain your food is still more nourishing and less risky than what comes from anonymous producers.

When we grow our own food and use plants as medicine rather than big pharma, we limit our environmental impacts and unintended consequences. Taking the next steps to proactively improve your health and make yourself more resilient in the face of growing environmental and corporate practice-related health risks is critical.

Read More: “Have You Reached Stage 3?“

What do you think about this study? And where do you think the banned drugs in our meat supply are coming from? Let us know in the comments!

Tasha Greer

Tasha Greer is a regular contributor to The Grow Network and has cowritten several e-books with Marjory Wildcraft. The author of “Grow Your Own Spices” (December 2020), she also blogs for MorningChores.com and Mother Earth News. For more tips on homesteading and herb and spice gardening, follow Tasha at Simplestead.com.

simplestead.com/