Since clenbuterol has been detected in mutton, can we still eat it safely?

The last time we heard of "clenbuterol" was probably the Henan clenbuterol incident in 2011. This incident also involved the well-known meat product company Shuanghui, causing a sensation.

At that time, we thought that the ingredient clenbuterol would disappear just like melamine.

Unexpectedly, ten years later in 2021, it appeared again.

The recent 315 Gala exposed a sheep farm in Qing County, Hebei Province, which has been selling sheep fed with clenbuterol for a long time, and the feeding time has been "almost ten years."

Why did Clenbuterol reappear in the public eye after ten years? What exactly is it? Can meat products still be eaten safely?

1. What is Clenbuterol?

Clenbuterol is a large class of synthetic beta-adrenal receptor agonists, commonly known as beta-stimulants.

There are many types of lean meat powder, such as clenbuterol hydrochloride, salbutamol, ractopamine, salbutamol sulfate, dopamine hydrochloride, cimaterol and terbutaline sulfate.

The three most common ones at present are:

Among them, clenbuterol and salbutamol are the first generation of lean meat agents; ractopamine is the second generation of lean meat agents.

2. Why feed clenbuterol?

Clenbuterol can regulate protein synthesis, accelerate metabolism and fat decomposition, and promote the growth of lean meat in animals.

According to research, clenbuterol can increase the lean meat rate of pigs by 5% to 6%. A 250-kilogram pig can be sold for an additional 7,500 yuan*6%=450 yuan.

According to the reporter's investigation, feeding sheep with clenbuterol can increase the selling price of each sheep by 50-60 yuan. If there are 1,000 sheep, they can be sold for an additional 50,000-60,000 yuan.

3. Clenbuterol is old news, why can it still be detected?

In fact, the country had already been controlling clenbuterol long before the clenbuterol incident in 2011.

In 2002, the former Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health and Drug Administration jointly issued the "Catalogue of Drugs Prohibited from Use in Feed and Animal Drinking Water", banning seven types of clenbuterol.

In 2011, the domestic production and sale of ractopamine was even banned.

Why is it that when the state is already carrying out regulation, the incident of “feeding sheep with clenbuterol” still came to light?

This is because, driven by profit, some unscrupulous businesses have exploited regulatory loopholes.

In the past, clenbuterol was mainly used in pork and beef, so the supervision was mainly on these two meats. In particular, pork is the most popular meat for Chinese people, so the supervision is naturally the strictest.

Under such high-pressure supervision, there have been very few reports on clenbuterol in pork in recent years.

Dad Review consulted some people related to slaughterhouses and learned that the supervision of cattle and sheep is relatively weak, and mutton is even raised in the wild and slaughtered privately. This naturally led to the mutton production companies that were skilled in dealing with inspections in the 315 exposure.

In addition, although most countries and regions prohibit the use of ractopamine, the United States believes that it can be used even at lower residue levels.

If you buy some pork of unknown origin, you may actually buy "clenbuterol pork".

Because domestic and foreign regulatory standards are different, such an incident happened some time ago:

Both mainland China and Taiwan have banned the use of ractopamine. In August last year, Taiwan announced that it would allow imports of pork from the United States that had been grown using ractopamine.

The people of Taiwan naturally boycotted it, so a media host "proposed" that "ractopamine pork" (pork containing ractopamine) be made into meat floss and then sold to the mainland.

And the ending afterwards... everyone knows it.

4. What harm will occur if people eat this kind of meat?

Take the most common ractopamine as an example. Excessive intake can cause poisoning reactions, such as muscle pain, limb paralysis, accelerated heartbeat, arrhythmia, nausea and dizziness.

Some friends also asked:

Pigs will lose weight if they eat it, so can humans also lose weight if they eat it?

You know what, there are people who really use clenbuterol as a weight-loss drug.

But it is not a regular weight-loss drug, and the side effects it brings to the human body will be very serious. The specific side effects can be referred to the ones listed above.

5. How to avoid buying "clenbuterol meat"?

Professional identification of "clenbuterol meat" usually relies on testing; it is more difficult for ordinary people to distinguish it.

The method of judging fat thickness that is circulated on the Internet is somewhat difficult for ordinary people, not to mention that it becomes even more difficult to distinguish when the meat is cut into small pieces.

A more reliable method is to identify by flesh color.

The meat of livestock that are fed normally is generally dark red, but if livestock are fed with clenbuterol, the meat will be purple-red.

We recommend that you purchase meat products through regular channels (such as supermarkets and vegetable markets) rather than from individual butchers. This way you can screen out a large amount of meat that may contain clenbuterol.

If you are still worried, you can also try to buy some rapid test strips for clenbuterol. You can try the keywords "ractopamine test strips" or "clenbuterol test strips".

Finally, we hope that after this incident breaks out, the authorities will conduct a thorough, strict and thorough investigation.

Let clenbuterol be like melamine, it will no longer have a place in pork, beef or mutton.

References:

[1] Wang Yicui. "Clenbuterol" related incidents in my country in the past decade[J]. Food Safety Guide, 2017(21):34-35.

[2] A scientific interpretation of “ractopamine”.
http://www.hnsx.gov.cn/4148/content_960570.html