FDA Warns Farmers on Veal

The Food and Drug Administration, aiming to keep sex hormone supplements out of consumers’ veal, warned veal farmers on Friday to stop giving calves hormones to promote their growth.

The five hormones at issue are illegal for use in calves, and producers who use them may be prosecuted, Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, said.

Two of the drugs cited by the FDA, testosterone and trenbolone, are male hormones. The others are the female hormones progesterone, estradiol and zeranol.

Many farmers feed hormones to their animals to make them quickly gain weight.

Sundlof said in a telephone briefing that it was possible some veal eaters could have ingested hormones with the meat, but the amounts of added hormones would be so small that “you would probably never see anything.”

The warning was issued because inspectors from the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service found hormone implants in veal calves from three separate lots at two slaughter plants in Wisconsin, the FDA said.

Both agencies are investigating to see how common the practice is. And Sundlof said he understood the Agriculture Department would order 10% of veal calves to be tested for the drugs.

After June 6, no veal calf that has been given hormones can be slaughtered for food, the FDA said.