Meat Contaminated with Clenbuterol in China, Mexico and Spain

March 5 2012 --- Clenbuterol is a controversial and widely banned fat-burning drug that is added to the feed for pigs and other livestock to enhance muscle growth. Recently it has been in the news with a new ban in China, an outbreak in Mexico, and the possible contamination of meat purchased in Spain, reportedly leading to the temporary suspension of a world-champion cyclist who tested positive for doping.

Intended to result in leaner meat with a higher muscle-to-fat ratio, the use of Clenbuterol has been banned in meat since 1991 in USA and since 1996 in the European Union (EU). The drug is banned due to health concerns about symptoms noted in consumers. These include increased heart rate, muscular tremors, headaches, nausea, fever and chills. In the majority of cases these adverse symptoms are temporary.

 

Clenbuterol is a growth-promoting drug in the beta-agonist class of compounds. It is not licensed for use in China, the United States or the EU for food producing animals, but some countries have approved it for animals not used for food, and a few countries have approved it for therapeutic uses in food producing animals.

 

A major crackdown by the Chinese authorities in March 2011 involved the arrests of nearly 1000 people and confiscations of large amounts of tainted meat and stores of the drug. The situation has dramatically improved in China since September 2011, when a ban of Clenbuterol was announced by China's Ministry of Agriculture.

 

Clenbuterol is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Olympic Committee and other international sporting organizations due to its muscle-building properties. This has triggered several instances of claims by athletes who tested as positive for Clenbuterol that the blame lay with meat they had consumed.

 

In Mexico, where Clenbuterol has been banned for some years, 109 soccer players originating from several countries tested positive in July 2011. Over the next several months, government inspectors in Mexico shut down 14 livestock markets where 99% of 6,421 meat samples tested positive for the drug.

 

In Spain, Alberto Contador, a top Spanish cyclist was denied his victory in the Tour de France 2010 after testing positive for Clenbuterol.

 

His defense was that he had inadvertently ingested the drug by eating meat in Spain and his case was upheld, despite the fact that very little contaminated meat had been detected from samples taken in Spain or throughout the EU during 2008-2009.