The National Chicken Council this week sought to reassure consumers that chickens in the United States are not fed additives containing arsenic, after an investigation from Consumer Reports about what they said were elevated levels of arsenic in some rice products.
Although the report and subsequent media stories were heavily focused on rice, Consumer Reports noted that, “arsenic-containing drugs can be fed daily to chickens, turkeys, and pigs to promote growth, lower the levels of feed required, prevent disease in healthy animals, and color the meat,” and “the manure of treated animals ends up containing arsenic too.”
NCC said that the investigation leaves the false impression that feed additives containing arsenic are fed to chickens in the United States. “Chickens in the United States produced for meat are not given arsenic as an additive in chicken feed,” said Tom Super, NCC vice president of communications, in a statement released Wednesday.
“Some flocks used to be given feed that contained a product called Roxarsone, which included safe levels of organic arsenic. Even though the science shows that such low levels of arsenic do not harm chickens or the people eating them, this product was removed from the market last year, it is no longer manufactured, and it is no longer used in raising chickens in the United States. No other products containing any amount of arsenic are used in chicken production.”
NCC also directed consumers to its webpage, Arsenic & Chicken? No need to worry, for questions and answers about arsenic’s presence in food and chicken feed.
