Turn To Tara: Dangerous drugs in our meat?

<p>Data suggests that trace amounts of ketamine, a popular but dangerous party drug better known as Special K, have shown up in the nation's meat supply.</p>

News 12 Staff

Oct 11, 2018, 9:44 PM

Updated 2,020 days ago

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Data suggests that trace amounts of ketamine, a popular but dangerous party drug better known as Special K, have shown up in the nation's meat supply.
James Dickerson, the chief scientific officer at Consumer Reports, says the presence of other banned or restricted drugs has also shown up in chicken, pork and turkey. Those drugs include powerful antibiotics, antifungal medication and even anti-inflammatory pills, considered too risky for human use.
The research was obtained through a Freedom of Information request and was conducted by the Federal Department of Agriculture two years ago.
Ketamine's primary purpose is as an anesthetic for large animals.  When the FDA tested 6,000 meat samples selected at random from slaughterhouses across the country, Dickerson says just 1,000 of those samples came back positive for ketamine and other drugs.
Dickerson says it’s important not to panic.
“One thing you can do if concerned is reduce meat you consume daily,” he says.

The USDA says that concern is unnecessary, telling News 12 it mistakenly released this data prematurely in an effort to be transparent and later determined it to be "unfounded."


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