FDA Testing Milk in L.A., 12 Other Cities for Animal Drug Residues

The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it has begun testing retail milk supplies in 13 cities, including Los Angeles, after an independent survey found samples in several areas tainted with potentially harmful drugs.

The FDA said that while it “is concerned that these unconfirmed findings may indicate violative drug residues in milk,” it sees “no public health threat associated with animal drug residues in milk at the levels reported by the Wall Street Journal.”

The Journal’s survey, reported Friday, found that of 50 retail samples collected in 10 major cities, 38% were contaminated with antibiotics and sulfa drugs used to treat sick cattle. The newspaper said the most troubling in that class of drugs is sulfamethazine, a suspected carcinogen.

Another survey by the Center for Science in the Public Interest tested 20 milk samples from store shelves in metropolitan Washington and found 20% were tainted.

FDA spokesman Jeff Nesbit noted that the test both surveys used, called Charm II, can detect the presence of the class of drugs known as sulfonamides, but that further testing is required to identify which sulfa drug is present.

Nesbit said the FDA will release the results of its latest tests when they are completed, probably within two to three weeks.

The other cities where milk is being tested are Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Kansas City, Denver, Dallas, San Francisco and Seattle.