Is The Meat Safe To Eat In Thailand?

[ayakiawe]

If they do this kind of crapola in Malaysia what do they do here?

Can anyone let us in on the truth of our food supply here?

Read this article first and let me know what you know?

Aya

This article is from The Star Online

(http://thestar.com.my)

URL:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=...&sec=nation

__________________________________________________________________________

Thursday June 10, 2004

Crackdown on livestock farmers using beta-agonist

BY FOONG PEK YEE AND JASON SUNDRAM

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government plans to crack down

on local farmers who have been using beta-agonist

– a drug listed under the poisons schedule – to

produce more marketable lean meat.

Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said beef

and pork with residues of this drug could be

harmful to human beings.

The immediate side effects would include nausea,

headache, giddiness, palpitations and insomnia,

he said, adding that it could be fatal, especially

for those with heart problems.

“Between 70% and 84% of beef and pork were

contaminated by the drug, based on surprise checks by

my ministry last year and this year,” he said.

In a bid to weed out the beta-agonist users, Dr

Chua said the Cabinet had directed the setting up

of a national joint committee comprising five

departments or agencies – pharmaceutical, food

quality control, veterinary, environment and local

authority – be set up immediately.

Similar committees would also be set up at all

states, he added.

Errant farmers will be prosecuted under various

laws of the department.

“Farmers must realise that their irresponsible

way of doing business will backfire,” he told a

press conference here after attending the weekly

Cabinet meeting in Putrajaya yesterday.

Dr Chua said beta-agonist – a drug for

bronchio-dialator and used by asthmatic patients – could

only be bought based on certain criteria and

farmers had obtained them illegally.

He said the results of the ministry's spot

checks between May and June last year showed that 26

of the 37 samples, or 70.3%, were contaminated

with beta-agonist.

Selangor topped the list with 17 cases of

contamination, followed by seven in Perak and one each

in Johor and Penang.

Another spot check between July and September

last year found 43 (84.3%) of the 51 samples

contaminated – 19 samples from Selangor, 18 from Perak,

four from Malacca and two from Penang.

Dr Chua said checks at the slaughterhouse in

Shah Alam in January also found 24 of the 32

samples (75%) were contaminated – 12 samples from

Perak, eight from Malacca and four from Penang.

As an alternative for farmers to produce lean

meat, he said the Cabinet has agreed to allow the

use of Ractopamine, which is not harmful to

humans and is approved by the US Food and Drug

Administration.

In a telephone interview from Kuala Langat, pig

farmer Lim Keng Leong said lean pork could be

obtained by feeding pigs with long beans and maize.

“Pigs with between 70% and 80% lean meat will

fetch the best market value,” he said.

Lim, 38, who has about 1,000 special lean pigs

from Denmark, said the animals he imported were

“naturally quite lean” and he fed them proper food.

The Federation of Malaysian Consumer

Associations welcomed the initiatives taken by the

Government in combating the use of beta-agonist in

livestock.

Its president, Datuk Prof Hamdan Adnan, said

consumers did not complain about beta-agonist

earlier because they did not know about it.

“Because the drug causes conditions like

insomnia and worsening of heart problems, many consumers

are unaware that their condition may stem from

the usage of the drug in cows and pigs.

“Doctors are oblivious to the dangers of

beta-agonist as they tend only to treat the symptoms and

generally do not know the root cause of the

ailments suffered.

“It is about time more attention is paid to the

usage of beta-agonist in livestock,” he added.

<p>

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