| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"PagCal" |
| Date: |
01 Sep 2006 04:00:36 AM |
| Object: |
Chicken products contaminated with arsenic, study finds |
Chicken products contaminated with arsenic, study finds
By Ahmed ElAmin
13/04/2006 - Brand name chicken products sold in supermarkets and fast
food restaurants are widely contaminated with arsenic, according to test
results from a consumers' association.
Even though the amounts of arsenic found in retail chicken is below
federal health limits, the findings pose a problem for the industry. The
study could help heighten concerns about the safety of poultry meat as
consumers are already nervous about the advance of avian influenza in
wild birds throughout Asia and Europe.
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) says that arsenic
in chicken meat appears closely linked to the decades-old practice of
intentionally putting arsenic into feed to speed up growth.
At least 70 per cent of US broiler chickens have been fed arsenic,
according to IATP estimates.
Minneapolis-based IATF tested 155 samples from uncooked supermarket
chicken products and found 55 per cent carried detectable arsenic.
Arsenic was more than twice as prevalent in conventional brands of
supermarket chicken as in certified organic and other “premium” brands.
All 90 fast food chicken products tested by IATP also contained
detectable arsenic.
Plenty of the raw chicken tested had no or nearly no detectable arsenic,
including that from some organic companies and most chicken tested from
the world's largest chicken producer, Tyson Foods.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not tested for arsenic in
the chicken meat that Americans commonly eat. USDA typically tests for
arsenic only in chicken livers. However scientists have published
scientific articles warning that average arsenic levels in chicken meat
may be higher than previously thought, the IATP stated. Before the
report, there had been little if any actual data on how much arsenic is
in chicken meat, besides liver, in the US.
“Adding arsenic to chicken feed is a needless and ultimately avoidable
practice that only exposes more people to more of this ancient poison,”
stated David Wallinga, a physician, and the director of IATP's food and
health program. He is also the author of "Playing Chicken: Avoiding
Arsenic in Your Meat".
Chicken producers can use any particular feed additive according to
restrictions that the Food and Drug Administration mandates on the
product label. FDA-approved labels for most of the arsenic products
added to chicken feed allow them to be used “for increased rate of
weight gain, improved feed efficiency, and improved pigmentation.”
Many of the same products are also labeled for use in preventing a
parasitic infection, called coccidiosis, in flocks.
Broad and non-specific labeling like this means there really is no way
to discern whether arsenic is being used to color chicken meat, to make
birds grow
faster, or to try and prevent disease in flocks of 30,000 birds being
raised in close confinement, indoors, the IATP stated.
The IATF says the intentional uses of poisons like arsenic is not
necessary. Many chicken producers raise birds without arsenic, including
European chicken producers and USDA-certified organic producers
The IATF study detected no arsenic in 45 per cent of our raw chicken
samples. The use of arsenic is banned in the EU.
"Based on our limited sampling, some of the largest producers of chicken
in America likely have taken steps already to reduce or avoid the
routine use of arsenic," the organisation concluded.
Arsenic feed additives, like roxarsone, are in an organic form.
Conventional wisdom had it that organic arsenics were not very toxic at
all. Strong scientific evidence now suggests that within the chicken
roxarsone is converted into the inorganic forms of arsenic thought to
date to pose the greatest health risks to humans, Wallinga says.
The Environmental Protection Agency considers 65 per cent of the arsenic
in chicken meat to be inorganic arsenic. The human body, in the process
of converting and eliminating arsenic, creates some organic arsenic
species more toxic than their inorganic parent compounds.
All forms of arsenic alter how cells interpret the genetic instructions
they carry, recent science shows.
Typically, arsenic is added to animal feed in combination with other
drugs, like antibiotics and anti-parasitic agents.
"As far as we know, the combined impact on human health of eating
chicken meat from the birds eating this feed with chemically-active
compounds has not been investigated," the IATP stated.
The organisation eestimates from 1.7 to 2.2 million pounds of a single
arsenic feed additive, roxarsone, are given each year to chickens.
Brand name chicken products tested by IATP included Foster Farms, Trader
Joe's, Gold'n Plump, Perdue, Smart Chicken, and Tyson Foods. Fast food
chains that had chicken products tested included McDonald's, Wendy's,
Arby's, Subway, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Church's and Popeyes.
Chicken products were purchased from supermarkets and fast food outlets
in Minnesota and California and were analyzed for arsenic by a private,
independent commercial laboratory.
Arsenic levels varied significantly. The most contaminated brands of
uncooked chicken breasts and thighs on average had arsenic levels around
ten-fold higher than did the brands found to be least contaminated with
arsenic.
Plenty of the raw chicken tested had no or nearly no detectable
arsenic, including that from some organic companies and most chicken
tested from the world's largest chicken producer, Tyson Foods.
Five packages of Gold'n Plump livers contained an average of nearly 222
ppb arsenic, the highest of all the chicken samples. Prepared chicken
thighs from Church's on average had 20 times the arsenic levels of
thighs from KFC. The chicken in sandwiches from Jack In The Box on
average had more than five times the arsenic than in Subway sandwiches.
.
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