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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Healthy Living / Consumer Beware: Antibiotic Free Meats That Aren’t

Consumer Beware: Antibiotic Free Meats That Aren’t

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Is Your Meat Truly Free of Antibiotics? 
  • How to Source Truly Antibiotic Free Meats

antibiotic free meat

Reading food labels is a confusing experience for the majority of consumers. This confusion is purposely engineered in many instances to keep consumers guessing and product sales flowing.

MSG, for example, hides behind over 50 different labeling names. Overwhelmed consumers are often deceived into buying products loaded with MSG that they would never buy if labeling policies required full disclosure.

This very effective cat and mouse game is also played with other neurotoxins like aspartame (NutraSweet), Splenda, neotame and other artificial sweeteners consumers actively attempt to avoid.

These pseudo sugars are frequently hidden in sports drinks and other “low carb” fare using the overly broad “natural” or “artificial” flavorings labels that allow food manufacturers to hide the exact names of undesirable chemicals away from the concerned eyes of the consumer.

To avoid undesirable additives such as carrageenan and gassed meats to keep them red, consumers must battle an ever-changing landscape of labeling gamesmanship played by food manufacturers that is aided and abetted by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Is Your Meat Truly Free of Antibiotics? 

Neurotoxins aren’t the only chemicals consumers are trying to avoid in their food.   An ever-growing segment of the consumer market is seeking meat from animals raised without antibiotics due to concern over the rapid rise of superbugs like MRSA and the ever plummeting age in which young girls are experiencing the onset of puberty – both of which are linked to low dose antibiotics in animal feed.

In Denmark, a ban on the use of antibiotics in animal feed drastically reduced antibiotic-resistant infections in people.   “The Danish Experiment”, a source of pride for the country’s 17,000 farmers, provides strong evidence that feeding antibiotics to animals have deadly consequences in humans.

Low dose antibiotics fed to livestock via feed causes them to mature more quickly, and this may be one cause of early development in girls who consume meat and milk produced from such animals.

Just another reason to avoid taking your children to fast food restaurants where the meats are an antibiotic residue pharma fest.   Ah, but I digress…

Antibiotics in drinking water are yet another environmental problem linked to the use of these drugs by agribusiness.  A shocking 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States every year are purchased by agribusiness for otherwise healthy livestock!

Consumers concerned about the problems described above and wishing to avoid antibiotics in their food are falling all over themselves to buy meat and milk from animals not subjected to the daily insult of antibiotics in their feed.  As with other undesirables like MSG and aspartame, antibiotics are hiding behind confusing labeling nuances.

According to the USDA (Federal Register, Vol. 67, No. 250; December 30, 2002), a product labeled “Not Fed Antibiotics” or “No Subtherapeutic Antibiotics Used” may actually come from an animal that was given antibiotics for illness or injury.   An FDA antibiotic withdrawal period prior to “harvest” (slaughter) to reduce (but not necessarily eliminate) antibiotic residue in the meat must be observed for either of these labels to be used.    
 
Even more vague are meats with the label “No Detectable Antibiotic Residue“.  Products with this label mean that “a statistical sampling analysis using a science-based protocol” was unable to detect any antibiotic residue.   In other words, the animals could have been eating antibiotic laced feed for the entire production phase but the farmer simply followed the prescribed FDA withdrawal phase before slaughter.   If subsequent “science-based” tests failed to find antibiotic residue, the label is permitted.
 
The best labels for consumers seeking no antibiotic meats at the store are “No Antibiotics Used” or “Raised Without Antibiotics“. These labels mean that the animal was raised from birth to slaughter with no antibiotics used at any time.

How to Source Truly Antibiotic Free Meats

Interestingly, the USDA prohibits the label “Antibiotic Free” for some reason.   It seems to me that if a consumer wants to source truly antibiotic-free meats, it would be best to go to a local farmer where you can familiarize yourself with how the animals are raised and observe production procedures. I recommend US Wellness Meats if you can’t find any quality sources locally.
I personally feel more comfortable trusting an actual person I’ve had a conversation with about how the animals are treated in both illness and health than a label that may or may not be accurate or whose semantics has deceived my buying intentions!
  
A special thanks to Stanley Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat, for helping me track down the USDA reference material for this article.
 
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Category: Healthy Living
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: the bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (15)

  1. Traci

    Aug 28, 2011 at 5:18 pm

    Beyond Organic is a company launcing Oct. 31st. Their beef is grass finished and their cheese is really raw.

    If anyone is interested, put your information into the Insider page to access to the information before the company actually launches. It’s just info and you can learn how pure this food is. They also have beverages that are extremely good for your body. I’m an insider and it’s free. Just gives me the info I need and an occasional newsletter. I’m so excited about it. I love this website…so informative and I feel even more encouraged about the organic foods I’m about to purchase!!! Thanks!

    Reply
  2. Raine Saunders

    Aug 25, 2010 at 2:27 pm

    Hi Sarah – great information here, especially for those who are new to getting acquainted with real food. You know, I have never seen the first three labels you have described, but I don't doubt they are out there. Most of our meat is purchased locally and we know where it comes from, but I do buy some Organic Prairie meats (bacon and hot dogs). We haven't been able to find a good local source of bacon yet without antibiotics/hormones, etc. Organic Prairie's label reads "raised without antibiotics". We also sometimes buy Applegate Farms lunch meats as they are organic (but unfortunately are not pasture-raised and therefore are probably fed grains, corn, and soy). But at least they are organic.

    Love the variety of information you offer here at your site. Keep up the great work Sarah!

    -Raine

    Reply
  3. Christy

    Aug 24, 2010 at 12:32 am

    This was such a useful post – so full of information that we all need to know so we can "fight" with knowledge when we purchase food for our families. Thank you for linking this to Two for Tuesdays!

    Reply
  4. Butterpoweredbike

    Aug 19, 2010 at 4:30 am

    My goodness, it's all so slippery, when you follow a money trail, and so difficult to be a wise and educated consumer. Thank you for sharing this with Two for Tuesday. I know a lot of people will find this information very helpful.

    Reply
  5. the clark clan

    Aug 18, 2010 at 6:24 am

    Hi Sarah! Wonderful wonderful article and I would LOVE to share it on my thoughts on friday link love post because it is so important and just another reason to support grass fed organically stewarded animal products! Thank you so much for sharing this on the two for tuesday recipe blog hop! HUGS! [email protected]

    Reply
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