Want Antibiotics with That? FDA "Kinda" Doesn't. Food for Thought!

August 3 2010

Like the target of the song "Is You Is or Is You Ain't (My Baby), the FDA doesn't quite come out and regulate an activity that it thinks is a serious threat to humans: the feeding of antibiotics to livestock and poultry to promote growth (as opposed to legitimate therapeutic use).

Instead, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is "hoping that farmers will adopt the guidelines voluntarily, but such hopes have not materialized in the past," according to Dr. Britt Erickson of the American Chemical Society.

Industry groups, understandably, are unlikely to adopt the FDA's guidelines issued June 28, 2010. Meanwhile, some legislators and public health advocates appear to be more on our side than the agency whose tagline is "Protecting and Promoting YOUR Health."

Read the FDA's 19-page draft guidance.

Category: Open to Debate
Filed under
: Food/Nutrition, Government/Legislation