It’s… not great best avoided.
Max German did a episode on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxdWD25llTU
Mostly a problem for US consumers
Red countries ban/limit it, white countries allow it (even if they don’t use it domestically - like australia)
How am I supposed to avoid this as an American?
They don’t report what they fed the animals.
Also, are there effects on me if I eat meat from an animal fed this. That’s unclear.
Industrial farmers (to my knowledge) in America don’t feed their pigs this since china banned it. China is very strict about this, and will (allegedly) blacklist an importer if ractopamine is identified in any pig.
So in effect, importers won’t allow it, so livestock auctions won’t allow it, so farmers don’t do it.
America exports a substantial percentage of its pork to China.
Source: I am tangentially connected to the swine industry, and my local livestock auction starting testing for ractopamine a few years ago
