A&W eliminates steroids, hormones and medicated feed from beef production

A&W eliminates steroids, hormones and medicated feed from beef production

VANCOUVER — The nation’s second-largest burger chain is now serving beef raised without steroids, hormones or medicated feed additives.

A&W, with 790 locations across Canada, is the first major chain in Canada to make such a commitment.

Beef cattle raised for A&W on ranches in Canada, the United States and Australia are isolated from conventionally raised cattle to ensure that they are not exposed to growth promoters, said chief marketing officer Susan Senecal.

“It was a real challenge to make this happen. We wanted to make sure we achieved perfect isolation ... through their entire life cycle,” she said. “We wanted to ensure we would be able to track this, and that took a long time.”

Some local restaurants and burger bars, such as Vera’s Burger Shack, Crave and the Burger Bus, offer organic beef burgers, which are required to be free of hormones, steroids and medications. Romer’s Burgers serves only local range-fed beef raised with similar restrictions.

McDonald’s Restaurants uses all-Canadian beef, but leaves decisions about the use of growth hormones to its suppliers, according to company spokeswoman Karin Campbell, who noted that hormone use is highly regulated by Health Canada.

Natural hormones progesterone, testosterone and estradiol, and synthetic hormones zeranol and trenbolone are all approved for use as growth promoters in beef cattle.

Hormones used in beef production generally promote muscle growth and improve feed conversion, the amount of weight an animal gains per unit of feed consumed.

Six different additives are approved for use in medicated feed for cattle in Canada.

Three of those — lasalocid sodium, salinomycin sodium, and monensin sodium — are antimicrobial drugs that fall into the category of drugs that have no therapeutic use for humans, said Reynold Bergen, science director of the Beef Cattle Research Council.

Chlortetracycline hydrochloride is an antimicrobial closely related to tetracyclines, which are antibiotics used in human medicine, but for which there are alternatives, said Bergen.

Melengestrol acetate is a steroidal growth promoter, and ractopamine hydrochloride is a non-antimicrobial drug given to promote lean weight gain.

Feed additives go through a rigorous testing process for animal and human health by the veterinary drug directorate of Health Canada, said Bergen.

“Canada has a really robust system that all these additives have to pass,” he said.

Nonetheless, the Canadian Medical Association has called on the federal government to stop the use of antibiotics in the agriculture sector except by prescription from a veterinarian, citing concerns that antibiotic misuse is “rampant” and that the practice could give rise to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Critics of hormone use in beef rearing fear that residues in the meat could increase the risk of cancer in humans who consume it, although scientific evidence is weak and mixed. Hormones commonly used in Canada and the United States have also been the subject of a decades-long battle with the European Union, which has long sought import restrictions on beef raised using hormones.

Source:
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/diet-fitness/eliminates+steroids+hormones+medicated+feed+from+beef/8957682/story.html

cmack 4,136

A&W eliminates steroids, hormones and medicated feed from beef production

VANCOUVER — The nation’s second-largest burger chain is now serving beef raised without steroids, hormones or medicated feed additives.

A&W, with 790 locations across Canada, is the first major chain in Canada to make such a commitment.

Beef cattle raised for A&W on ranches in Canada, the United States and Australia are isolated from conventionally raised cattle to ensure that they are not exposed to growth promoters, said chief marketing officer Susan Senecal.

“It was a real challenge to make this happen. We wanted to make sure we achieved perfect isolation ... through their entire life cycle,” she said. “We wanted to ensure we would be able to track this, and that took a long time.”

Some local restaurants and burger bars, such as Vera’s Burger Shack, Crave and the Burger Bus, offer organic beef burgers, which are required to be free of hormones, steroids and medications. Romer’s Burgers serves only local range-fed beef raised with similar restrictions.

McDonald’s Restaurants uses all-Canadian beef, but leaves decisions about the use of growth hormones to its suppliers, according to company spokeswoman Karin Campbell, who noted that hormone use is highly regulated by Health Canada.

Natural hormones progesterone, testosterone and estradiol, and synthetic hormones zeranol and trenbolone are all approved for use as growth promoters in beef cattle.

Hormones used in beef production generally promote muscle growth and improve feed conversion, the amount of weight an animal gains per unit of feed consumed.

Six different additives are approved for use in medicated feed for cattle in Canada.

Three of those — lasalocid sodium, salinomycin sodium, and monensin sodium — are antimicrobial drugs that fall into the category of drugs that have no therapeutic use for humans, said Reynold Bergen, science director of the Beef Cattle Research Council.

Chlortetracycline hydrochloride is an antimicrobial closely related to tetracyclines, which are antibiotics used in human medicine, but for which there are alternatives, said Bergen.

Melengestrol acetate is a steroidal growth promoter, and ractopamine hydrochloride is a non-antimicrobial drug given to promote lean weight gain.

Feed additives go through a rigorous testing process for animal and human health by the veterinary drug directorate of Health Canada, said Bergen.

“Canada has a really robust system that all these additives have to pass,” he said.

Nonetheless, the Canadian Medical Association has called on the federal government to stop the use of antibiotics in the agriculture sector except by prescription from a veterinarian, citing concerns that antibiotic misuse is “rampant” and that the practice could give rise to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Critics of hormone use in beef rearing fear that residues in the meat could increase the risk of cancer in humans who consume it, although scientific evidence is weak and mixed. Hormones commonly used in Canada and the United States have also been the subject of a decades-long battle with the European Union, which has long sought import restrictions on beef raised using hormones.

Source:
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/diet-fitness/eliminates+steroids+hormones+medicated+feed+from+beef/8957682/story.html

cmack 4,136