TIL: Ractopamine

[timelets]

Major U.S.-based meat producers are ramping up for such an uptick. In a November earnings call, Tyson Foods Inc. Chief Executive Noel White told investors that the company expected to export a higher amount of pork to China in 2020 thanks to its new policy of only purchasing hogs free of ractopamine* —a feed additive used in U.S. hogs but banned in China.

JBS USA Holdings Inc., whose Brazil-based parent company is the world’s largest processor of beef and pork, also said it would start selling ractopamine-free pork this month, “in order to maximize export market opportunities.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-pork-producers-didnt-bring-home-the-bacon-in-2019-11578479401

Food in the US is a highly engineered product. Maybe that's why milk, cheese and meats taste different in Europe. Bread is also different because here it's engineered to be mass produced and sliceable.

* Ractopamine is a feed additive, banned in many countries, to promote leanness in animals raised for their meat.