Detecting veterinary drug residues in pork Amy-Lynn Hall, United States Food and Drug Administration, USA

Pork is one of the preferred meats in the world and is a billion dollar industry for producers worldwide (Giamalva et al., 2014). According to statistics from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (2016), in 2015, per capita pork consumption averaged approximately 90 pounds in the European Union and China and 50 pounds in the United States. There are a variety of veterinary drugs approved for use in companion and food-producing animals, including swine. Therefore, consumers rely on regulatory authorities to ensure that edible products obtained from animals treated with a veterinary drug product do not contain drug-derived residues that might constitute a human health hazard.