Ractopamine, a feed additive that promotes lean growth, has been recognized as safe by the World Health Organization and the Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and, with some notable exceptions, is accepted around the world.

The Canadian Ractopamine-Free Pork Certification Program is an industry driven program to assure customers who want Ractopamine excluded from their pork that they can buy with confidence.

Dr Egan Brockhoff, an Alberta based swine veterinarian, told Alberta Pork's monthly telephone town hall last week, the Ractopamine-Free Pork Certification Program is extremely important to Canada's exports.

Dr Egan Brockhoff-Prairie Swine Health Services:

We generate somewhere between $300 and $500 million dollars a year in market access with the addition of the Canadian Ractopamine-Free Program.

It's a critical component for us as pork producers and people working within the industry.

It's critical in that it maintains market access for us and maintains some very large markets for us.

Most importantly China, the European Union and Russia are Ractopamine-free zones.

They won't import pork products from animals that have been fed Ractopamine.

Those markets, especially the Chinese market, are critical markets for our pork industry here in Canada.

Ractopamine-free access is giving us a market somewhere near $500 million per year and so it's a critical program for us.

Dr Brockhoff, notes no federally inspected processors in Canada accept pigs fed Ractopamine so there's a great deal of demand for this Ractopamine-free production.