000362 No Banned Hormone Found in US Export MeatMarch 23, 2000Washington - A federal investigation has found no use of an illegal growth hormone that the Swiss government said it discovered in samples of American beef last summer, officials said. The Swiss government notified the United States last July that the banned carcinogen, diethylstilbestrol, or DES, was detected in two samples of U.S. beef that was marketed as free of hormones. But a recently completed investigation by the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service found no evidence that the hormone had been used by producers or feedlots that supplied the plant where the beef was processed, said Catherine Woteki, USDA's undersecretary for food safety. In addition, a Dutch laboratory was unable to confirm results of the Swiss testing, so it's “possible that DES was not present” in the samples, Woteki said. She would not identify the plant, but officials with Farmland National Beef Packing Co. have said that at least one of the allegedly tainted samples was traced to its plant in Liberal, Kan. The hormone was banned in 1979. The Agriculture Department stopped testing most beef for it in 1991 after failing to find the compound for several years. USDA had planned before the Swiss complaint to resume testing for DES this year as part of a plan to make sure it isn't being used. The testing regimen is expected to begin later this spring.
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