Australia: Coles supermarket says no to Paylean additive in pig feed

Paylean is given to pigs for about four weeks to promote lean meat in pigs.

 

“We never base any of our bans, like HGP in beef, on an issue around health. We base it on an issue around eating quality and also around customer requirements that meat be as natural as and if we can achieve that without it being an undue cost burden to suppliers then we’ll certainly do that,” a spokesperson for Cole stated.

 

The President of the Victorian Farmers Federation pork Committee, John Bourke, has stated that savings in pig finishing  is what drives using the chemical in pig feed. He said “We get our pigs to market faster and leaner, they use less feed, so it makes us more competitive.”

 

Even though Paylean is considered to be safe, Coles supermarket still requires that pigs are not fed with it.

 

Currently, the ban on Paylean is only on fresh pork but will also be expanded to all deli line products in 2014.

 

Paylean
Paylean was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration on December 22, 1999, and has also been approved in more than 20 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and Thailand. However it is banned in 150 other countries, including the European Union, China, and Malaysia, which prohibited its use in 2002.  (Wikipedia)

 

More on Paylean, click here.

 

Source: ABC.net/rural