FDA study finds little evidence of antibiotics in milk

[gerogie2]

Source: Associated Press

In response to concerns, the agency in 2012 took samples of raw milk from the farms and tested them for 31 drugs, almost all of them antibiotics. Results released by the agency Thursday show that less than 1 percent of the total samples showed illegal drug residue.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FDA_ANTIBIOTICS_IN_MILK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-03-05-17-46-28

[ronnie624]

1. Announced the study in 2010, began testing in 2012.

Two years advanced warning. How interesting.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

2. Hope my next gallon is not that one percent

Fight for better food

[AdHocSolver]

3. The problem with giving cows antibiotics is not with antibiotic residues in milk.

The problem is that these antibiotics can destroy beneficial microbes in the cow and allow antibiotic resistant microbes to survive and increase and be ingested by those who drink the milk.

[Sunlei]

4. tests were over 2 years ago? & illegal drug user farms were not even reported! FDA should test milk

off grocery store shelves.

If any farms are caught using unapproved, banned medications, those farms should be shut down.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Any site in violation would have been investigated and dealt with accordingly

by the local District Office of jurisdiction and the state where the dairy was located, to have the product pulled. Note that most milk is regulated by the states as it does not go into interstate commerce (crossing state borders), which would be required for actual FDA intervention. This is part of the reason why food surveys are done (and in this case, they tied a survey to research for publication).

The "blind" part was that they were not identified in the published study but that does NOT mean they were ignored by the state milk authorities or the agency.

[Sunlei]

13. do you know of a link to any regular 'state' testing and the results?

Did the state recall the contaminated product off the consumer shelves? Some of the medications banned from use are dangerous. Was there a public consumer warning?

[BumRushDaShow]

15. It depends on the state

Each one generally has a Milk Board and/or other Food regulating entity (like PA).

Or you can go here - FoodSafety,gov and have a ball. Lots there. There is a LISTSERV available so you can get daily alerts (or a digest) of every food recall reported across all the federal agencies that cover food.

Note that FDA (or USDA, etc) generally only can get involved if a product crosses state lines. Otherwise federal agencies don't really have jurisdiction other than what may have been enacted in the statutes (federal).

[Aerows]

5. I'm confused

I love raw milk cheese, and pasteurized cheese also has little antibiotics.

I love dairy products in general, goat, sheep or cow. Why is this odd?

[DeSwiss]

6. Federal Dipshit Agency. n/t

[asiliveandbreathe]

8. and tobacco doesn't cause cancer and

the air quality in NYC is just fine! - You bet! -

[PaulaFarrell]

9. Healing is misleading

In fact the story says tat less than 1% of milk had illegal levels of antibiotics, so 100% of milk could had have some antibiotics, just within "legal limits" - whatever they are. That's not at all the same as finding "little evidence of antibiotics". But the journalis didn't feel it necessary to tell of how many of the samples contained SOME antibiotics.

[Adrahil]

10. That brings up a question....

What drug residue IS legal in milk? They mention that only 1% (which still seems high to me) exceeds the legal limit, but the title of the article is misleading. The antibiotics are there, they just don;t exceed the legal limit.

Is the legal limit still a problem?

[fasttense]

11. This is a totally misleading and inaccurate headline

Read the article, it is NOT saying they didn't find antibiotics in the cows milk. They DID find antibiotics in the milk. They found a lot of antibiotics. They just did NOT find contamination levels or excess levels of antibiotics. They seemed to have focused on farmers who had previously violated the amount of antibiotics allowed in cow's milk.

As a farmer I can guarantee you that there are plenty of antibiotics in grocer store cow's milk. They are just not at a level considered excessive by the FDA.

Give a tool to a farmer that increases production and they are going to use it.

[elias49]

12. Just say 'no' to drugs in milk. nt

[wordpix]

14. FDA should be testing for pesticides, too

Since the cows are usually fed crap grains grown with pesticides that come to us via the food chain. No wonder we have so much cancer and neurological disorders like Parkinson's.

About 65% of agricultural chem's (approx. 11,000) have not been tested fully or at all, but are approved for manufacture and distribution anyway, thanks to the '70's Congressional "conditional registration" loophole.