Have you ever heard of ractopamine? It is used in 80 percent of US pig and cattle operations. The asthma drug-like growth additive .is widely banned overseas. It is marketed as Paylean for pigs, Optaflexx for cattle and Topmax for turkeys.
This month, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) have sued the FDA for withholding records pertaining to ractopamine's safety. According to the lawsuit, in response to the groups' requests for information "documenting, analyzing, or otherwise discussing the physiological, psychological, and/or behavioral effects" of ractopamine, the FDA has only produced 464 pages out of 100,000 pages that exist.. The lawsuit says the CFS has "exhausted administrative remedies" and that the FDA has "unlawfully withheld" the materials