(Reuters) — Smithfield Foods Inc. says it will soon raise half of its hogs on feed that does not contain ractopamine.
The additive is a lean muscle promoting drug that has been banned in China and Russia.
Two Smithfield plants, which handle 43,000 hogs a day or about 10 percent of the U.S. industry, are already ractopamine free, said chief executive officer Larry Pope.
The company will convert a third plant to be ractopamine free June 1.
When that happens, “over 50 percent of our operations will have no ractopamine as part of their feed rations,” Pope said.
China wants pork from the United States to be verified by a third party to be free of ractopamine.
Russia has banned imports of meat from the U.S. because of the presence of the food additive.
Smithfield, which is the world’s largest pork producer, said its plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, the world’s largest pork-processing facility, to be ready to meet China’s new requirement which took effect March 1.
