text: Ractopamine has not been allowed in the European Union, based on the 2009 EUs Food Safety Authoritys opinion on its safety evaluation, which concluded that available data were insufficient to derive a maximum residue limit as a safe residue level for human consumption. The uncertainty was particularly great for people who might be thought to be more susceptible than most to an increase in β adrenergic stimulation from consuming the additive, such as children or people with cardiovascular disease, and that simply increasing the "uncertainty factor" built into the calculation as a safety factor would rapidly become arbitrary.