NFL warned off meat from China and Mexico

America’s National Football League (NFL) recently advised players to avoid consuming meat originating from China and Mexico because it may contain the muscle-enhancing and weight-loss steroid, clenbuterol, a banned substance under NFL performance policy. A memo sent out this week requested players remain mindful that eating large quantities of such meat while visiting these countries could result in positive tests. Although China banned the tablets in 2011, after hundreds of farmers illegally used them to produce leaner meat, over 100 players with Mexican, British and American teams have experienced the ongoing problem of clenbuterol being detected in test results following contaminated meat consumption. As we have previously reported, there is increasing alarm over the large numbers of drugs used in farming livestock, and also over their potential role in creating superbugs, with the recent discovery of livestock in China carrying bacteria resistant to colistin - an antibiotic of last resort to fight infection in humans.

The National Football League (NFL) recently warned players to avoid steroid-contaminated meat from China and Mexico. Meat produced in those countries, the league advised in a notice sent to players, could contain clenbuterol, a muscle-building and weight-loss stimulant that the NFL bans under its policy on performance-enhancing substances.

“Players are responsible for what is in their bodies,” a memo circulated this week advised. ”Consuming large quantities of meat while visiting those particular countries may result in a positive test.”

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One player already knows about the perils of Mexican meat. Last season Duane Brown, a left tackle for the Houston Texans, spent a bye-week (a rest week each team gets during the regular season) in Mexico and ate beef there. Afterwards he tested positive for clenbuterol. Only by providing details of what and where he ate was he able to clear himself and avoid a 10-game suspension.

In 2011, five players with Mexico’s national soccer team tested positive for clenbuterol. Then, too, the steroid’s presence in their bodies was traced back to meat they ate. They were cleared of any doping offense, but only after missing out on a major tournament.

That same year over 100 teenage soccer players preparing for the Under-17 World Cup ran into the same problem. FIFA and the World Anti-Doping Agency acquitted them of any wrongdoing, blaming the failed tests on contaminated meat. The agency then shelved a similar case involving Philip Nielsen, a Danish cyclist who tested positive for clenbuterol after the 2010 Tour of Mexico.

Though Mexico has banned clenbuterol for use in livestock, ranchers there have been known to use the steroid to help increase meat yields. Last year authorities inspected 200 slaughterhouses and found clenbuterol in livestock in nearly 60 of them. Mexico’s national sports commission said last week that coaches are keeping a careful watch on what meat is supplied to athletes ahead of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic games.

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In 2011 Chinese authorities arrested hundreds involved in the selling and making of clenbuterol for illegal use in pig feed. While few NFL players may be vacationing in China right now, by 2018 the league expects to make its long-delayed debut there with a regular-season game. And China, the world’s largest pork producer, exports pork to Hong Kong and Japan.

Two NFL teams in particular should be concerned after the league’s warning. As part of the NFL National Series, the Houston Texans and Oakland Raiders will play in Mexico City in November. Going vegetarian for a bit might be a good call.