Fish Fed Melamine-Tainted Feed, Rice Protein Actually Wheat Flour
UPDATE 2: Transcript of the press conference is here.
UPDATE: Here’s a picture of the “mis-labeled” bag imported through ChemNutra that containted the melamine-tainted wheat flour.
The AP reports on why we didn’t know sooner:
When asked why ChemNutra didn’t disclose previously that it played a part in that deal, Stern said the company did notify the FDA in mid April. However, the company chose not to include the co-brokered shipment in an April 2 recall of the wheat gluten it had imported for use in pet food … because it hadn’t sold the ingredient, Stern said.
So what other company was involved?
(Correction: Wheat flour spiked with melamine was sold as wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate)
May 8th FDA press conference on melamine investigation update. We have posted the major points below.
Fish feed contaminated: Contaminated feed went into fish feed in Canada, sold to US fish farms. Investigators have only been to one farm and no fish has entered the market yet. Learned in the last week (about 2 months after the first recall) that contaminated fish feed ingredient was brokered through ChemNutra — the same company that supplied Menu Foods. Fish meal constitutes less than 50% of fish food.
Pet food quality control failed to detect problems: Wheat flour added instead of rice protein concentrate or wheat gluten. Pet food companies are responsible for testing for correct ingredients.
Contaminated shipments actually wheat flour: Not labeled wheat flour. Wheat gluten and wheat flour are related. Pet food with contaminated rice protein concentrate actually contained wheat flour.
Affects on farm animals not yet conclusive: Animal exposure risk assessment not yet complete. May take a week. Although the FDA is saying that the exposure to the animals was brief and the concentration is low and even if you take an extreme position of exposure, the risk is 2500 times below any known possible risk.
FDA in reactive mode: FDA is currently focused on testing new imports of wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate, not other possible suspects. FDA will look at other ingredients if they start to see unusual spikes of unexplained illnesses.
The process of making wheat gluten: FDA comments: Wheat gluten is a component of wheat flour. It uses a process where you wash the starch away and then you’re left with the wheat gluten (the protein). This is when we are speculative — it certainly is a simpler process of a manufacturer where they take wheat flour or whole wheat and grind it up and then it would still have some wheat gluten in it. The total protein content of that is low. If you add melamine, you are adding nitrogen to it and when you do that, the measure of protein is actually measuring nitrogen. You have a wheat based product with high protein and then that creates the appearance of high protein when it actually is high nitrogen.
Attendee list after the jump.
On the call:
- David Acheson, M.D., assistant commissioner for food protection, Office of the Commissioner, FDA
- Kenneth Petersen, D.V.M., M.P.H., assistant administrator for field operations, Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA
- Stephen Sundlof, D.V.M., Ph.D., director, Center for Veterinary Medicine, FDA
Julie Zawisza, assistant commissioner for public affairs, Office of the Commissioner, FDA - Captain David Elder, director, Office of Enforcement, Office of Regulatory Affairs, FDA
- Michael Rogers, director, Division of Field Investigations, Office of Regulatory Affairs, FDA
- Vera Adams, Executive Director, Commercial Targeting and Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
May 8th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I avoid buying pet food with fish in it because it is more than likely to be the highly contaminated factory farmed type. Unless it is wild caught, but then again you need to be cautious of where it is caught and what kind of fish it is.
I only buy wild caught fish for myself and my cats. The only salmon I buy is Pacific (not Atlantic) wild caught.
Articles on this subject…
Melamine-spiking “widespread†in China; human food broadly contaminated
http://www.horsesass.org/?p=2861
…The practice is widespread in China,†the Times reports, and has been going on “for years.†And it is not just wheat, corn, rice and soybean proteins that should be suspect, but the animals who feed on it, including all imported Chinese pork, poultry, farm-raised fish, and their various by-products. Despite FDA and USDA efforts to allay concerns about consuming melamine-tainted meat, the health effects are unstudied, and the permissible level is zero. If China could impose a three-year (and counting) ban on the import of U.S. beef after a single incident of Mad Cow disease, then surely the U.S. would be justified in imposing a ban on Chinese vegetable protein and livestock products due to such a prevalent, industrywide contamination.
Norwegian farmed salmon production raises global concern
http://environmentalchemistry......almon.html
Report Cites Health Risks of Farm-Raised Salmon
http://www.latimes.com/la-me-s.....3045.story
Fish Farms Become Feedlots the Sea
http://www.latimes.com/la-me-s.....full.story
Related News Coverage
Environmental Working Group
http://www.ewg.org/news/eclips.php?issueid=5007
May 8th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
This whole country is so messed up. You cannot eat a flippin thing let alone feed your pet without some kindof CRAP being in it. I might as well move to a third world country at this rate that is about how safe the food is these days.
May 8th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
I had some friends back in the 1980’s who were not only macrobiotic vegetarians, but grew their own food for themselves and their pets. At the time I thought it seemed kind of extreme, now I think they had (have) the right idea.
May 8th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Thank you so much for this informative website. I view it everyday and do whatever you ask to insure our pets and our own safety. I do have a comment to make. Do any of you now wonder why we hear of so much cancer and other dreaded diseases being on the uprise? We have no idea what is in our food and what it is doing to our bodies! I wish someone would wake up to this fact and stop letting our foods be contaminated with foreign wastes.
May 8th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Somebody help me here. I’m not understanding the whole wheat flour thing???
May 8th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Makes me wonder about the rise of Autism in young children too. This needs to be looked into. I know for a fact that taking autistic kids off of Wheat Gluten has helped a lot of them. This poisoning by way of China could be the missing link to why there is a spike in AUTISM.
Think about it.
May 8th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Hello, what’s with the wheat flour? Have we missed something here?
I am now totally confused.
May 8th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
“Have we missed something here?”
naw, but the government has . . .
May 8th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Do I have this right? They take the wheat gluten out of the wheat and than add melamine to the wheat flour to bring the protein level back up? Iam so confused!!!
ITCHMO ADMIN: They make wheat gluten out of wheat flour. In this case they add melamine to up the protein content to wheat flour. The contaminated substance is wheat flour, it was incorrectly labeled wheat gluten. (Corrected)
May 8th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
don’t worry, i’m sure the govenment plans to make this all go away by approving melamine as a food additive. that will make it all better.
and while we’re talking about possible long term effects, don’t forget that it’s been reported in major medical journals that a nearly 16% rise in kidney disease has been seen among adults in this country in the years 1998-2004. anybody still think this just started in in november 2006?
May 8th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
May 8, 2007
“No amount of regulation would have found the melamine,†says Duane Ekedahl, president of the Pet Food Institute. Instead, he says, the Chinese government should step up to help certify its food products – or otherwise be stung by consuming nations that shift their trade to more careful trading partners.
“The US system is not broken; that’s an oversimplification,†says Mr. Ekedahl. “We shouldn’t have to inspect it here. [Foreign governments] should inspect it all there.â€
Knock off the Kool Aid Duane
May 8th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Got ya. Thanks.
May 8th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
I just left a comment on another post asking about the autism connection. Does anyone know of any autism or autism related syndrome websites that are tracking this? Given the astronomical rates of autism in this country, I wonder how they are assessing this.
Anyone with any info, please post.
Thanks in advance.
May 8th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Did anyone tell Mr. Ekegahl that after 9-11 it might be a good idea to test imports and not allow on that country to be “honest and upfront” to us? The US has to be proactive and testing 1% of imports is inexcusable—the money needs to be there as this is a “Homeland Security” issue. My nest email to the FDA will remind them of 9-11 in case they forgot about it!!!
May 8th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
What’s with this wheat flour and “mislabelling?” I can’t find it now, but haven’t we seen the ChemNutra documents that say wheat gluten? I’m confused.
May 8th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
who needs terrorists when we have the pet food institute?
May 8th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Carol at 3:43 pm
The Lunatics are in charge of the Asylum??
May 8th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Basically, why is the FDA even bothering with all this?
They just let the crap back out to come back to pet foods again.
Legal now has new meaning. Laws can be changed by risk assessments. NOT
May 8th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Our own companies here aren’t honest and upfront” with us. Why would we expect a foreign company to tell us the truth? And now that we know they lie, why are we still doing business with them?
May 8th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
U.S. investigators also have learned that the purported Chinese wheat gluten and a second ingredient, rice protein concentrate, were actually simple wheat flour. The flour was spiked with melamine and related, nitrogen-rich compounds to make it appear more protein rich than it was. In tests, nitrogen levels are measured to gauge the overall protein content of food ingredients.
May 8th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
ok, i think this is what they’ve done. they took wheat flour and spiked it with melamine to make it appear to be wheat gluten, which has a higher protein content. this way, they don’t have to process the flour to make the gluten. cheaper. then they simply lie to the importer and say it’s wheat gluten. or rice protein concentrate. what i can’t understand is why it took 8 weeks to discover this.
May 8th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Carol, I got an answer from AAFCO about homemade pet foods reminding me dogs can’t eat chocolate…
May 8th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
When I read the live blogging, it sounded like it was actually wheat flour that was labeled wheat gluten and rice protein. Like they took the melamine spike a bit further, by adding it to flour to make it appear protein rich like gluten.
May 8th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Ann H
I think US chocolate is a tad safer than Chinese vegetable proteins . . .
*hands my Dalmatian another choc covered almond*
May 8th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Maybe it’s China’s plan to kill the U.S. slowly and make money too. They win all around, world domination and paid for it. Don’t forget, we are in their way.
Duane Ekedahl from Steve’s post:
“The US system is not broken; that’s an oversimplification,†says Mr. Ekedahl. “We shouldn’t have to inspect it here. [Foreign governments] should inspect it all there.â€
When we’re going to be hit again, “We shouldn’t have to inspect?”
We are living in a country run by evil fools.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
‘We are living in a country run by evil fools.’
Gary you got that right. Corrupt to the core, screwed into every sinew. Going going GONE.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
I thought the same thing about autism.
Also- there is a rise in joint replacements for Baby Boomers. They call it boomeritis or something.
Not to mention more arthritis, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
At least it is making the news:
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
You are what you eat
Another day, another food contaminated with melamine.
During an ongoing media teleconference call, USDA/FDA officials have revealed that melamine-tainted “protein concentrate,†imported from China, contaminated fish meal manufactured in Canada. The tainted fish meal was then distributed to an unknown number of fish farms in the US and Canada.
Other revelations:
50,000 swine have been quarantined in Illinois due to suspect feed.
The tainted “wheat gluten†and “rice protein concentrate†at the center of the pet food recall, was actually misrepresented as such. Further tests have determined that it is wheat flour, adulterated with melamine.
http://www.nwprogressive.org/w.....u-eat.html
May 8th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Any way you look at this wheat thing, we have to take an educated guess that it is in all our food by now. The FDA is making me feel like one of those poor ducks or geese that they force feed large amounts of food through a metal tube shoved down their throat to make pate de foie gras….fatty liver!!!
May 8th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I simply don’t understand how anyone with eyesight could mistake wheat flour for wheat gluten. If you remember the pictures of the crystals in the wheat gluten it was yellow - didn’t look anything like wheat flour. The texture was wrong, the color was wrong (though I suppose they could have chucked in a little Sudan Red to dye it).
May 8th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
SIGH, I sent the FDA letter to Food Mfg to Dear Duane. :D
I enjoyed that.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
http://www.northplattebulletin.....;pageID=29
Melamine suspected in hog deaths in China
by North Platte Bulletin Staff - 5/8/2007
Hong Kong television broadcasts and newspapers recently contained accounts of pigs staggering around with blood pouring from their bodies.
It is suspected that the pigs were sickened by wheat gluten containing the illegal substance melamine, which can be deadly if combined with other substances.
The New York Times reported that the sick pigs were in Guangdong Province. The Apple Daily newspaper said as many as 80 percent of the pigs in the area had died, and panicky farmers were selling ailing animals at deep discounts.
The Times cited reports in Hong Kong that said the disease began killing pigs after the Chinese New Year celebrations in February and is now spreading.
Is anyone suprised that it’s the same toxin there as here? When will THIS country know better and put a HALT to Chinese food/medication imports across the board?
May 8th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....id=topnews
May 8th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
My Dog’s Mom wondered if any autism sites are tracking this - intresting question- I don’t know, but here’s a link on “some” autism info - seems thimerosal is the most likely culprit but considering the lies upon lies from various government agencies who tell you vaccines are safe- who knows where the truth is
http://healthy.net/scr/news.asp?Id=9096
May 8th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
As i read this, therefore: any food that includes a grain “flour” should now be suspect (mostly dry dogfood).
Also keep in mind: many petfoods (even grainfree-dry) contain meals.
Whatever was in that (quickly dumped mela-meat) is concentrated in the meal. Meals are processed at high temp - a factor in production of the toxins.
Lots of petfoods contain fish meal - which we now know if we had not already suspected - involve ChemNutra’s adulterated poison products.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Truly this whole thing was a conspiracy perpetrated by the Cattleman’s association against Chick Fil A :)
May 8th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
““No amount of regulation would have found the melamine,†says Duane Ekedahl, president of the Pet Food Institute. ”
A few days ago this site had photos of untainted and tainted product and they looked quite obvious to my eye. If you can see it, I say regulation should have stopped it.
I can’t find these photos on here right now.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
“FDA will look at other ingredients if they start to see unusual spikes of unexplained illnesses.”
So what they are saying is that many, many people must become ill without explanation before thay will test another ingredient. I can’t believe such a thought could come out of the mouth of the person in charge of our food safety. Eat it, if you get sick and die, then we will test it. That is too absurd to even make sense of. How about you test it first, then I eat it so I DON’T become sick and die. Doesn’t that make more sense. I think they have actually lost touch with the fact that we are human beings. They have to be mentally unbalanced to say such a thing. Maybe the melamine has killed their brain cells.
Today I had a plain cucumber on non wheat gluten bread for lunch. It was the only non poisonous thing I could find. And now you are telling me that the actual flour in the bread may be spiked. *goes off to find a high bridge to jump off*
I guess the tilapia fish I bought for my dog has to go in the garbage too.
This has just become surreal. I wish I would just wake up from this nightmare.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Think US chocolate is safe? Hershey just closed one of several US plants. They have a plant in Guadalajara, Mexico.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Dear Duane Ekedahl:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking this opportunity to remind food manufacturers of their legal responsibility to ensure that all ingredients used in their products are safe for human consumption. In view of the recent recalls of various pet foods due to the presence of wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate contaminated with melamine, and information revealing that some of this contaminated pet food may have been mixed with feed for pigs and poultry meant for human consumption, manufacturers are encouraged to make sure they have procedures in place that ensure the safety of the ingredients in their products, as well as the safety of the packaging and processing supplies they use. Manufacturers should also verify that their suppliers have such procedures in place. Advice on how to ensure that food ingredients and food products are safe for human consumption can be found at www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/alert.html.
FDA issued a protein ingredient surveillance assignment on May 1, 2007. As part of this assignment, FDA, in conjunction with state regulatory authorities, will be performing inspections of various food and feed facilities and collecting and testing for the presence of melamine a variety of protein ingredients, and finished products containing such ingredients, commonly found in the U.S. food and feed supplies. FDA has initiated this assignment to help ensure the safety of the U.S. food and feed supplies. The assignment will supplement melamine testing already conducted by FDA. The protein concentrates being tested include wheat gluten, corn gluten, corn meal, soy protein, and rice protein concentrate. Over the next few weeks, the assignment may expand in size and scope to include additional types of protein concentrates and finished products.
During inspections of manufacturing facilities conducted as part of this assignment, FDA will reiterate to the food and feed industry the importance of assuring the safety and security of their ingredients and products by knowing their manufacturing and packaging operators, ingredient suppliers, contract manufacturers and sources for all incoming materials. FDA will collect samples primarily during inspections of domestic food manufacturers or, in the case of imports, at the point of entry. The samples will be analyzed at a variety of laboratories that are part of the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN).
Manufacturers are responsible for taking their own measures to ensure the safety of their products. Manufacturers should not wait for possible FDA testing of their materials as manufacturers bear the responsibility of ensuring only safe products are put on the market. For those companies interested in performing their own tests for melamine, the methodology used by the FERN laboratories can be found at www.fda.gov/cvm/MelaminePresence.htm.
Sincerely,
Robert E. Brackett, Ph.D.
Director
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
Stephen F. Sundlof, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Director
May 8th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
We can keep cheap pharmaceutical products out of the country so big pharma can “protect” consumers from paying less…
But we must let cheap adulterated food products in so that big business can kill our pets and us to protect their bottom line.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
I can’t believe that they won’t test without a spike in deaths. The most sensitive would probably be the elderly. How long would it take to notice more of our elders dying of kidney failure? Frequently they die in nursing homes and no autopsies are done because they’re old and sick.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Pet food recall: Liveblogging the 5/8 FDA/USDA media conference
http://tinyurl.com/32pdd4
May 8th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
4lgdfriend–the letter I got from Purina said we the consumers wanted cheaper ingredients (not they the stockholders wanted larger quarterly dividends). Basically I felt they were trying to say it’s our fault they out-sourced to China.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Wonder how long the media takes to sort this out. Hey AMerica, our government just made us all guinea pigs!
I am so depressed.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Susan well quoted!
Money more money more money
May 8th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
anon Says:
May 8th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Think US chocolate is safe? Hershey just closed one of several US plants. They have a plant in Guadalajara, Mexico.
yeah, i remembered that after i posted :-/ at least they aren’t hershey’s. i got them at the natural food store so they should be safe . . . LOL!~~~~~~~~~~
*head explodes*
May 8th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Susan,
Wonder if Purina CEO bonuses went up after the de-patriot-ization.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
**“FDA will look at other ingredients if they start to see unusual spikes of unexplained illnesses.â€
So what they are saying is that many, many people must become ill without explanation before thay will test another ingredient. **
Yes Garyn, seems the FDA really is saying, “Eat sh** and die.” Then if, and I say IF alot of us do, then maybe, just maybe they’ll look into it.. It’s like when you want your town to put up a traffic light at a bad intersection. There have to be a certain amount of deaths in accidents before they will even consider it.
In a sense this is saving some jobs in America. If you die because you were in an accident at that bad intersection, ate too much tainted food, not only will YOUR job become available it will keep the hospital, police, undertaker, your insurace agent (who will do his job by denying your insurance to your spouse or family), and so on down the job chain.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
So disgusting. Companies only interest is money. They pay the FDA. They pay for their preferred perks -on K St. Advertising = lies sanctioned and ignored due to bribery. Labels = lies sanctioned and ignored due to bribery.
Petfood companies have zero credibility. Already knew the FDA has zero credibility