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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.

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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 eBooks 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. Diana

    Aug 17, 2010 at 10:10 pm

    What an interesting clarification. I am going to be reading descriptions carefully in the future!

    Reply
  2. girlichef

    Aug 17, 2010 at 9:04 pm

    What a very helpful article…I know many people will find this invaluable. Thank you for sharing it with Two for Tuesdays this week =)

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    Aug 14, 2010 at 10:38 pm

    I love your blog, and I think the farmer discussion suggestion is a good one, too! I'm a city girl but I now love talking to farmers. They really seem to appreciate an awareness and appreciation of sustainable practices, small farm struggles, related nutrition, etc. I think it's really important to make individual connections with those who raise our food — on the phone, in person, at farmer's markets, wherever — and encourage good practices. I love learning from them as well as piquing their interest in the benefits of pastured food, cholesterol, CLA, Nourishing Traditions, etc. I often bring them tidbits from the WAPF website and elsewhere. Just this week, I think I may have convinced a local grassfed farmer to get off statins — he seems so grateful for the info and new knowledge.

    Here's one more thing that it might be helpful to blog about — the use of soy in animal feed. It's a recurring thing I hear when talking to farmers. It's the default protein in most chicken and pig feed, cheap and subsidized, but I understand it adversely affects meat and eggs, and then us. Plus it's darn near impossible to know if it's GMO-free. If customers ask, with a genuine smile and some gentle persuasion, then it might help the situation.

    Beth

    Reply
  4. Sarah, the Healthy Home Economist

    Aug 14, 2010 at 12:22 am

    You know, that is a really excellent suggestion. I have visited so many farms, you kind of get the groove of it after awhile. No list of questions can make up for just getting the right "feel" about a place and a good, trusting relationship with your farmer so that you believe what they tell you – not to mention the flavor and taste of their product is excellent when things are done right at the farm.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous

    Aug 14, 2010 at 12:09 am

    Hi Sarah,
    This might sound like a stupid question, but how do you talk to the farmers? How do you know what to ask and what to look for? Do you visit their farms personally? Maybe you could do a "meet your farmer post" giving us a glimpse of the important points to look out for.
    :o)

    Reply
  6. Sarah, the Healthy Home Economist

    Aug 13, 2010 at 11:33 pm

    Hi Linda,

    Low dose antibiotics have been used for decades by agribusiness as it promotes faster growth in animals. Antibiotic residue in animal meat and milk may do the same in children. Here's an article about it:
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-06-29-antibiotics29_ST_N.htm

    Reply
  7. Linda

    Aug 13, 2010 at 9:27 pm

    We buy our chicken from Horizon Foods. It comes from a farm in PA and they do not use any antibiotics or hormones AT ALL. I do not buy beef since 2 of my family members do not tolerate it well.

    How is it that the antibiotics are the reason for girls developing earlier and not the growth hormones?

    I hope this actually posts. Sarah, I got your reply about my problems posting. I apologize for not responding back to you yet.

    Linda

    Reply
  8. Paul, The Uber Noob

    Aug 13, 2010 at 4:11 pm

    It looks to me like the 'norm' for agribusiness is to treat animals like machines. I find the whole industry rather sickening. It seems that our federal 'consumer' agencies really are the best that money can buy.

    Reply
  9. Anonymous

    Aug 13, 2010 at 2:41 pm

    Looks good to me. Thanks for spelling this out, I have has some questions about this myself.

    Reply
  10. Sarah, the Healthy Home Economist

    Aug 13, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    My blog software editor is giving me fits today .. Google made some changes yesterday and there are some spacing bugs. I've done my best to make this post legible. Thanks for your patience!

    Reply
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