Milk from treated cows has been found to have the same nutritional value and composition as milk from untreated cows. The public can be confident that milk and meat from bST-treated cows is safe to consume. As reported by the General Accounting Office in September 1992, FDA found evidence in the submitted clinical trials that bST-treated cows have a slightly increased incidence of mastitis, a common infection of a cow's udder. In March, an FDA advisory committee met to discuss concerns raised by GAO that antibiotic treatments for mastitis could lead to increased antibiotic residues in milk. The committee concluded that adequate safeguards are in place to prevent unsafe levels of antibiotic residues from entering the milk supply.
States require milk to be tested for drug residues.
Milk found to have unsafe levels of residues must be discarded, and producers responsible for violative residues are subject to regulatory sanctions. Nevertheless, additional steps have been taken to ensure that any unsafe residues in the milk of bST-treated cows are detected well before the milk or its products reach the grocery shelves. The agency's conclusion that bST poses no risk to human health has been affirmed by scientific reviews in the past several years conducted by the National Institutes of Health, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and drug regulatory agencies of Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Economic community, and by an issues audit by the HHS Office of Inspector General. Based on the conclusions of the committee members, and on its review of the facts, FDA has concluded that it lacks a basis under the statute to require special labeling of these foods. Food companies, however, may voluntarily label their products provided the information is truthful and not misleading.