Open American beef! Consumer Foundation: Is the President deceived by the Council of Agriculture?

The storm over American beef continues to rage. At 11 p.m. on the 5th, the Executive Yuan unexpectedly issued a press release through the media, stating that based on the conclusions of the third expert meeting, it would "conditionally lift the ban" on American beef containing added ractopamine. In response, the Consumers' Foundation and some experts who participated in the third expert meeting criticized that this policy was completely inconsistent with the expert assessment, and questioned whether "Council of Agriculture Chairman Chen Baoji deceived President Ma Ying-jeou? Or did President Ma Ying-jeou deceive the people?!"

The Consumers' Foundation held a press conference today (6th) to restore the scene of the expert meeting and pointed out that there is no scientific evidence to prove that eating meat with ractopamine added to feed is harmful to the human body, "After reviewing domestic and foreign scientific literature, no case reports of consumers being poisoned by eating it" and "Ractopamine has a short half-life in the human body, and more than 80% can be eliminated within 24 hours." These three conclusions.

Zhou Jincheng, dean of the National Taiwan University College of Veterinary Medicine, who attended the third expert meeting, said that the participants at the meeting had argued for a long time over the words "Related research over the past decade has not shown any side effects for consumers from eating meat" in the minutes of the second meeting, and even walked out of the meeting. Finally, the government agreed to delete the sentence. Moreover, since "there is no research on the effects of consumers using meat products containing ractopamine," it is not appropriate to include it in the meeting minutes.

Xu Limin, attending physician at the Department of Traumatology at National Taiwan University Hospital, said that from another perspective, there has been no research showing its long-term safety, and there has been no relevant research on consumers. The Council of Agriculture and the Presidential Office should not over-interpret the harmlessness of clenbuterol to the human body. The Consumers' Foundation responded that the fact that there was no data on ractopamine poisoning in the past does not mean that poisoning will not occur. And if no ractopamine poison comparison test has been conducted, there will naturally be no records to check!

The Consumer Foundation's representative, FamilyMart United Clinic physician Su Weishuo, questioned why the company had suggested at the meeting that it should provide large-scale clinical trial reports and epidemiological reports to prove that it posed no safety concerns to human health. Otherwise, how could it open up so easily and allow all citizens to become guinea pigs for the industry? ! .

As for the part about "ractopamine has a short half-life in the human body, and more than 80% can be eliminated within 24 hours", Zhou Jincheng pointed out that although ractopamine is metabolized quickly in animals and about half of its content can be eliminated within 6 hours, the clenbuterol remaining in the muscles or internal organs after slaughter is not easy to disappear, and is not easily destroyed by heating or cooking. After animals are fed with clenbuterol, if there is no appropriate withdrawal period and it remains in the meat, it may be ingested by consumers. Especially in the world, people like to eat internal organs, such as lungs and kidneys (kidneys), which poses a particular threat to women before and after pregnancy, infants, the elderly, and consumers with weak bodies.

The Consumer Foundation calls on the government to adopt an objective and correct understanding of why ractopamine should not be allowed to remain in any meat products, so as to avoid disappointing the trust of all citizens and endangering the health of Taiwan's next generation.