{"id":3648,"date":"2022-11-15T18:40:11","date_gmt":"2022-11-15T18:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmforward1.wpengine.com\/?page_id=3648"},"modified":"2023-04-11T10:53:20","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T14:53:20","slug":"how-can-antibiotic-free-meat-contain-antibiotics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/issues\/antibiotics-public-health\/how-can-antibiotic-free-meat-contain-antibiotics\/","title":{"rendered":"How can “antibiotic-free” meat contain antibiotics?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Farm Forward found residue of a growth-promoting antibiotic in Global Animal Partnership\u2019s (GAP) Animal Welfare Certified\u2122 meat purchased from Whole Foods Market<\/span><\/a>, raising questions about the ability (and motivation) of retailers and certifications, like GAP, to ensure that their products live up to their promises. A large-scale, peer-reviewed study\u00a0published in Science<\/span><\/a> has now affirmed Farm Forward\u2019s findings\u2014a significant percentage of GAP-certified animals were found to come from feedlots where multiple animals tested positive for prohibited substances. In this post, we explain why we aren\u2019t surprised to find drug residues in certified products, and the steps needed to address these problems. These troubling findings raise a variety of questions about products with \u201cdrug-free\u201d and \u201chumane\u201d labels. For example, if Whole Foods and a stringent third-party certification can\u2019t protect consumers from these drugs, can they protect farmed animals from cruelty on factory farms? And if these certified, premium products have the same problems as conventional alternatives, should consumers continue to spend up to 20 percent more for them?1<\/a><\/p>\n

Considering the huge variety of \u201cantibiotic-free\u201d and \u201call natural\u201d labels used on meat products, and the high prices for products carrying a third-party certification, it\u2019s reasonable to assume that there are multiple safeguards in place to ensure that animals haven\u2019t been fed prohibited drugs. But the reality is that virtually no one is testing for these substances<\/strong>: not the retailers, not the certifications, and for the most part, not the USDA or other regulatory bodies. As a result, products with \u201cantibiotic-free\u201d labels may contain traces of antibiotics, as Farm Forward\u2019s testing has shown and has been confirmed by a recent study published in\u00a0Science.2<\/a><\/p>\n

The USDA tests a small percentage of meat products for drug residue, but only to detect quantities that they deem harmful to human health (the FDA has voiced skepticism about the USDA thresholds, and some drugs approved by the USDA have been banned in dozens of countries). USDA\u2019s minimal testing does nothing to prevent retailers from selling products with \u201cnever ever\u201d labels even if they contain trace amounts of prohibited drugs. For example, in 2019, only 0.003 percent of US beef cattle were subject to any form of chemical testing.<\/strong>4<\/a> In other words, the USDA plays no role whatsoever in verifying antibiotic-free claims made by meat producers.<\/p>\n

Retailers know that the USDA isn\u2019t testing, of course, so you\u2019d assume retailers would test their own products to ensure that they aren\u2019t lying to shoppers who purchase \u201cdrug-free\u201d and \u201call natural\u201d products, but Farm Forward isn\u2019t aware of a single retailer that tests for prohibited drugs. Why not? Because they aren\u2019t required to test by law, and testing could expose them to additional liability\u2014since they don\u2019t test, they can claim they weren\u2019t aware of these problems.<\/p>\n

If the government doesn\u2019t require verification, and nobody else is looking, what incentive do retailers have to crack down?<\/p>\n

GAP and other third-party certifications are aware that retailers like Whole Foods don\u2019t test their products for drug residues, so they should be the last line of defense ensuring that retailers are living up to their promises\u2014but they\u2019re not. In 2017, Farm Forward used our seat on GAP\u2019s board of directors to push for this sort of drug testing, but we were unsuccessful. (Farm Forward\u00a0resigned<\/a>\u00a0from GAP\u2019s board in April 2020.) Now, Farm Forward\u2019s test results, and a large-scale, peer-reviewed study, prove that GAP and Whole Foods have failed to prevent these drugs from reaching store shelves. Because Whole Foods profits from drug-free claims which they do not verify, our findings look particularly bad for GAP, whose Executive Director receives a salary from Whole Foods.<\/p>\n

GAP\u2019s unwillingness to curb the use of prohibited drugs is a reflection of an even more troubling trend: In most cases, animal welfare certifications have been commandeered by corporations for the purpose of\u00a0humanewashing<\/a>\u00a0by offering their stamp of approval for factory farming. GAP does inspect farms for compliance with their welfare standards (not all certifiers do), but in our view, insufficiently. Within the GAP program, most farms receive announced audits just once every 15 months. A\u00a0recent undercover investigation<\/a> of a GAP-certified farm captured violent\u2014but not unusual\u2014handling of turkeys being gathered for slaughter. The footage is a painful reminder that humanewashing has very real consequences for the hundreds of millions of animals living on \u201ccertified\u201d factory farms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In short: the USDA allows the use of questionable drugs in meat production and fails to ensure that products with labels like \u201call natural\u201d and \u201cantibiotic-free\u201d live up to their claims; meat sellers rely on the word of meat producers who claim their animals are never treated with drugs, though testing proves otherwise; and none of the major third-party certifications test for drug residues in meat within their audit programs.<\/strong>\u00a0The USDA, retailers, and third-party certifiers understand that no one is watching, but have taken no action. Meanwhile, producers, retailers, and third-party certifications profit from \u201cantibiotic-free\u201d labeling, and consumers continue to pay more for these products.<\/p>\n

Factory farms can\u2019t operate profitably without antibiotics and other drugs, which help sick animals live long enough to reach slaughter in conditions that could otherwise kill them. Producers, retailers, and the USDA understand the importance of these drugs for factory farming, but also want to cash in on consumer demand for natural products, so they skirt liability by ensuring that they can meet the legal requirements for verifying the claims they make about their products without actually verifying them. Consumers and animals pay the price while industry profits.<\/p>\n

Demanding that retailers and third party certifications test for drugs in products labeled \u201call natural\u201d and \u201cantibiotic-free\u201d won\u2019t eliminate the use of these drugs on factory farms. It\u2019s time for GAP and Whole Foods to commit to phase out\u00a0all factory farm practices for the products they certify and sell, and to do more to promote plant-based alternatives until they can live up to their claims.\u00a0Sign our petition<\/a> to\u00a0stop Whole Foods\u2019 humanewashing today.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1242,"parent":662,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3648","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3648\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}