b'Dr. Markus Lipp, FAO Food Safety OfficerThe Most Pretentiousbeen the first words uttered, but they werewhen country proponents of Zilpaterol Word of the Year certainly among the first, much to my an- pleaded with the Commission to push Robust. If I heard it once, I heardnoyance. That annoyance morphed intothe Codex standard further up the 8-step it a million times at this meeting. It wasdisgust as the word robust kept beingapproval process at Codex just so that almost everyones favorite buzz word inusedtimeandagaintodescribehowMerck and others could make more dol-describing the absolutely marvelouswonderful the JECFA risk assessmentlars around the World. With such pas-job they said JECFA had done in evalu- was. Keep in mind that JECFA has threesion, you would have thought they were ating the safety risks of zilpaterol hydro- times declared zilpaterol residues in foodtrying to save lives; but, no, it was only chloride residues in slaughtered animalsto be safe for humans to consume, andabout the money.that end up on consumer dinner tables.Merck and its minions have repeatedlyDuring the debate on this issue I spoke JECFA is the acronym for the Joint FAO/ built their case for Codex to approve thefor NHF, having to endure the Chairman WHO Expert Committee on Food Addi- standard upon that foundation. imperiously interrupting the start of my tives and, at Codex meetings, is about asFor those who dont already know,argument to tell me that I couldnt say close to being considered a God on scien- zilpaterol is Mercks special steroid-likethat half of the delegates would adopt a tific matters as anything I have ever seenveterinary drug for cattle, pigs, and poul- standard for cow patties simply because anywhereelse.MostCodexdelegatestry that unnaturally forces them to makeotherwise Codex would look bad. An-hang on every word uttered by the Codexmore muscle and less fat. It harms theother time, the Chairman refused to let science officer and woe be to anyone animals who get the drug, and it furtherNHF and another INGO (IBFAN) speak such as NHFwho disagrees with thoseharms the humans who in turn eat theat all. But when allowed to speak for my official pronouncements! drugged animals. There is no therapeuticallotted two minutes, I gave a succinct So,onTuesday,November22nd,benefit whatsoever to the poor animals,summary of the arguments in NHFs CRD when the CAC delegates took up Agendaonlyfinancialbenefittothevet-drug16, to be found at https://thenhf.com/Item No. 4.8 (Zilpaterol residues in food)companies and ranchers. And, yet, youcomments-of-nhf-on-zilpaterol-andstartedtheirdiscussion,robustshould have seen some of the fierce emo- hydrochloride/.JECFA risk assessment might not havetions on display at this Codex meetingAmong other arguments made by NHF 10 H ealtHF reedomN ews /w iNter2022'