That American Liver vs Russian Liver photo stopped me scrolling. Three thin slices in a foam tray on the left, a whole liver the size of a football on the right. It looks like a size comparison. The real story isn't size.
In 2013, Russia's food safety service Rosselkhoznadzor found ractopamine in beef liver from a US plant and banned all US beef, pork and turkey starting Feb 11, 2013. Zero tolerance. No traces allowed.
Ractopamine is a drug fed in the last weeks to push lean muscle. The liver is the filter — it processes everything the animal eats. It's banned or restricted in 168 countries, including the EU, China, and Russia. In the US, the FDA still allows it.
The approval is what gets me. FDA cleared it in 1999 based on data from Elanco, the company that makes it. The only human trial submitted was six young men, and one had to be dropped because his heart started racing and pounding. And we barely test for it — in 2010, USDA tested none of 22 billion pounds of pork and just 712 samples from 26 billion pounds of beef.
This isn't old news. Last May, China blocked beef from JBS's plant in Greeley, Colorado after finding ractopamine in shipments headed for export. Same drug, same problem, more than ten years later.
You can avoid it if you know where to look. Chipotle, Whole Foods, and Niman Ranch say they don't sell meat raised with ractopamine. Look for "produced without ractopamine" on the label.
But you shouldn't have to hunt for meat that the rest of the world already refuses. If another country can do better, explain why we can't.
ractopamine-free policy.