BEEF industry and animal health officials say 40 years of widespread use worldwide, plus repeated scientific studies, have left no doubts about the value of hormone growth promotants (HGPs) in assisting beef yield, or their safety in food.
"HGPs have been reviewed here and overseas so many times as part of the regulatory process they'd have the squeakiest clean bill of health of almost any product I know," said Animal Health Alliance chief executive officer, Dr Peter Holdsworth.
Coles' major supermarket rival, Woolworths, also confirmed it had no problems with the safety or eating quality of beef produced with assistance of HGPs and it won't follow its competitor's move to ban such lines.
Woolworths did not want to "dictate how producers run their businesses".
Dr Holdsworth said the credibility of HGPs was reinforced this week by a newly released fact sheet from the Federal Government's Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) in the wake of Coles ban announcement.
"The APVMA must be completely satisfied on a plethora of different consumer safety and user safety issues before animal health products are approved for release - and this scientific work for HGPs has been revised and repeated many times over the years," he said.
Dr Holdsworth said given HGPs were mostly used in Australia to boost beef production from herds grazing in harsher northern or western climate zones, or feedlots, logic suggested Coles may be about to shift its beef buying activities towards southern States.
"It's pretty clear from the reaction that farmers have given HGPs that they appreciate the advantages these products provide to productivity," he said.
"It will be interesting to see how Coles follows through, given this issue seems to be developing into a bit of a standoff with the cattle industry."
Woolworths would not take a stand against HGPs because such a move would "ultimately add to the costs of our suppliers", among other reasons, said spokesman, Luke Schepen.
"The Coles decision is contrary to what the industry thinks and knows," he said.
Woolworths does, however, also offer shoppers the choice of HGP-free beef in its Macro house brand range, which includes organic red meat, poultry and dry grocery lines.
"We have had extensive consultation with beef producers and others in the industry and support and trust their production expertise," Mr Schepen said.
"We stand behind our high quality, nutritious and well priced beef products."
Pfizer Animal Health director, Mike van Blommestein said HGPs were typically aiding a reduction in fat content and adding about 20 kilograms of pure beef to a beast.
Mr van Blommestein, whose company is one of five supplying a total 6.5 million HGP doses to the Australian cattle market each year, said HGPs were a legitimate, well accepted product used by producers because it added a lot of productive capacity to their operations.
Meat industry research in 2007 suggested HGPs added about $210 million to the value of Australia's beef herd - equivalent to running an extra 2.3 million cattle.
"I see no real move by Coles to prove they'll pay an adequate premium price for HGP-free beef to properly compensate producers who do not use these products," Mr van Blommestein said.
He said chairman of Coles' parent company, Wesfarmers, Richard Goyder, had provided him with little confidence in the company's apparent new consumer-alert attitude to its food supplies when answering questions about the sow stall ban at a business gathering in Sydney this month.
"His response was very wishy-washy and focused on being seen by consumers as doing something about animal welfare.
"He did not seem at all concerned that most of Coles' smallgoods were imported from farms where sow stalls were used more widely than here."
What are HGPs?
Hormone growth promotants (HGPs) are supplements of naturally occurring hormones used by some producers to increase weight gain and improve feed efficiency in cattle.
They enable cattle to meet market weights at an earlier age by increasing muscle mass and slowing down muscle degradation, and in the case of steers replacing hormones lost as a result of castration.
HGP implants are placed under the skin behind the ear and release hormones in low doses - lower than levels of natural hormones found in other commonly consumed foods such as soybean oil, many vegetables, milk and eggs.
According to the European Federation of Animal Health a single consumer would need to eat more than 77 kilograms of beef from an HGP treated beast in one sitting to get the same level of oestrogen hormone found in one egg.
Most cattle treated with HGPs in Australia receive one dose.
More frequent treatments, particularly in harsher cattle production climate zones where HGPs are more commonly used, may reduce eating quality.
The vast majority of the US beef herd is treated with HGPs, but the chicken industry in Australia does not use HGPs.
Email a friend