USDA to Tighten Drug Testing on Meat, Poultry, and Eggs

The US Department of Agriculture announced Monday that the Food Safety and Inspection Service will be amping up regulation on drug and chemical contaminants in meat. The new testing system will detect 55 pesticides and nine different varieties of antibiotics, as well as numerous metals and other harmful compounds that can make their way into meat, poultry, and eggs. Previously, inspectors only looked for a few chemicals in each meat sample, but an increased focus on drug contamination in meat has led to the shift in policy. The USDA has been under fire recently for failing to crack down on meat producers’ overuse of antibiotics, which threaten to increase the presence of “superbugs” in human populations.