US Takes Aim at Toxic Pork After Decades on the Market

Hi, it’s Anna in Virginia. I’m going to tell you about a long battle to ban toxic pork in the US that maybe, just maybe, is coming to an end. But first...

Eight years ago, US regulators determined that, given new evidence, they’d made a mistake. In 1972, they allowed an antibiotic for pigs on the market. The drug, which regulators are concerned may leave carcinogenic residues, is now widely administered to animals that Americans consume as lunchmeat and hot dogs.

The thinking originally was that residues of the antibiotic, called carbadox, wouldn’t be passed on to humans and potentially cause cancer. In the early 2000s, an international committee that advises the World Health Organization determined the testing method used to make that assumption was flawed. The US Food and Drug Administration gathered evidence at its typical glacial pace and came to the same conclusion in 2016.

The drug, which can be used to treat sick animals but is largely marketed as a feed additive to help hog farmers produce bigger livestock, is still in use today. This is despite an FDA statement asserting that removing the product from the market would reduce lifetime cancer risk to consumers.

Carbadox is banned in Europe and Canada, but the FDA hasn’t been able to prohibit the use of the drug. Americans have been left exposed as Phibro Animal Health Corp., which sells carbadox under the brand name Mecadox, has fought any attempts to take the drug off the market.

But change may be afoot.

The FDA said in November it planned to revoke the method used to determine whether carbadox residues are passed on to humans, and withdraw approval of the drug. It’s not the agency’s first effort to remove the drug from the market, but part of what’s become a long, drawn-out process.

The agency told me in 2022 that going after the testing method “is the most straightforward and least resource-intensive process for removing carbadox from the market.” Largely, that’s government speak for “we think this is the best way to not get drawn into a lengthy court battle.”

Phibro, for its part, maintains carbadox is safe.

“There might be some mindset changes in the FDA, but this product is used by most of the hog producers in the United States, and again, it's safe and effective,” Phibro Chief Executive Officer Jack Bendheim said on an earnings call in November.

While the FDA’s move does seem to signal it’s ready to take the plunge and eliminate carbadox from our diets, Phibro will keep fighting. When I checked in with Phibro recently, the company told me it had filed a request for a hearing, which will no doubt stall the effort for at least some months.

The agency doesn’t go as far as telling people to stop eating pork while this mess is figured out, but did offer some guidance last year: “Pork is a good source of protein; protein can also be found in other meat, poultry, seafood, beans and peas, eggs, processed soy products, nuts and seeds.” Read into that what you’d like. — Anna Edney