July 23, 2007

EU scientific panel concludes beef hormones still forbidden in EU cattle

The European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) scientific panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) has concluded that there are no grounds to call for revision of the use of certain natural and synthetic growth promoting hormones (GPH) in cattle.

The assessment was made following the European Commission's request for EFSA to review its 2002 evaluation on GPH upon request of cattle breeders to re-allow the hormones in European cattle.

The Panel concluded that while more sensitive analytical process have been developed to identify and quantify the presence of GPH, these have not been widely used, thus, there is a lack of data on the type and amount of GPH residues in meat. GPH and its correlation on red meat and certain hormone-dependent cancers have not been carefully analyzed, it said.

However, the Panel also noted that new data indicated an association between the large-scale beef cattle production using hormones, and undesirable effects in wild fish species living in rivers that are exposed to waste water originating from these farms. EFSA made a call for any new data on the issue and the Panel used the submitted data together with data published in the scientific literature for its opinion. This opinion will now inform any future thinking by the EC and Member States in relation to restrictions on the use of these hormones in cattle.

Growth promoting hormones are used to increase the weight gain of cattle. However, they are not permitted in Europe because of concerns about possible health risks from residues in the meat and other edible parts of these animals.