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 4:41 pm
Anon- I’m sure they got HUGE bonuses. Got wheat gluten for less, charged us more. And now they blame us for not wanting to buy from them anymore.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Some posters have seconded this since the FDA press conference this afternoon:
(From AP’s Int’l Herald Trib. article recently put up online) “U.S. investigators also have learned that the purported Chinese wheat gluten and a second ingredient, rice protein concentrate, were simple wheat flours. The flour was spiked with melamine and related, nitrogen-rich compounds to make it appear to contain more protein than it did. In tests, nitrogen levels are measured to gauge the overall protein content of food ingredients…What we discovered is these are not wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate but in fact are wheat flour contaminated by melamine,” Acheson said.” http://tinyurl.com/2mg956
SHOCKING! And I don’t mean that as a snark. We’ve been counting on the FDA to get to the bottom of what the contaminants are. Now we find out they didn’t even know what the primary inert product was? Wheat flour instead of wheat gluten or RCP? I can’t wrap my head around this whole investigation at this point. It should be taken out of the hands of the FDA altogether.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
http://www.organicconsumers.or.....e_3611.cfm
Another Pennsylvania Township Strips Corporations of “Rights”
It can be done.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
susan, funny, but purina never asked me if i wanted cheaper ingedients in my pet food. where do they get off with this stuff? i hadn’t noticed that the cost of pet food has *ever* gone down at any time. did i miss the demonstrations where hordes of people rioted over the price of pet food? it really rots my socks how these companies try to blame us for the fact that they want to increase their profits by using cheap ingredients. i would ask them to document this consumer demand for cheaper pet food and see what the answer is then.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-b.....amp;src=ap
Farmed Fish Fed Contaminated Material
Updated 4:30 PM ET May 8, 2007 AP
By ANDREW BRIDGES
“The supposed wheat gluten was exported directly from China to Canada in a deal brokered by a U.S. company, ChemNutra Inc., Acheson said. ChemNutra also supplied the ingredient to a Canadian dog and cat food company, Menu Foods, that’s since recalled dozens of brands.
Steve Stern, a ChemNutra spokesman, said the Las Vegas company actually only cobrokered the deal to supply wheat gluten to the fish meal producer: “We never owned it, we never sold it.”
When asked why the company didn’t disclose previously that it had had a part in that deal, Stern said: “I really haven’t got an answer to that right now.”"
http://www.chemnutra.com/
Nothing here about the fish meal deal…
http://sdsternpr.com/chemnutra/
Here either, at the company mouthpiece.
http://www.chemnutra.com/pricipals.htm
Stephen S. Miller, CEO
“Steve has over 20 years experience in business management, entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, and law. He has also served as Vice President at both Smith Barney and EF Hutton, as well as Investment Officer at Citibank.
Steve earned a Law degree as well as an MBA degree at Columbia University, and bachelors degree from Brigham Young University. Steve is a lawyer and licensed member of the New York Bar. He also served as Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance at New York University.”
Can you say deep you-know-what?
May 8th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Wonder if Purina CEO bonuses went up after the de-patriot-ization.
Nestle’ Revenue $98,5 billion CHF (2006)
No. They are for the common people. Just regular guys like you and me struggling to make a living.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Susan: They lied and we’re “not buying it”
Good line! WE’RE NOT BUYING IT
May 8th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Steve Says:
May 8th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
May 8, 2007
“No amount of regulation would have found the melamine,†says Duane
wELL, I asked him how come IAMS was the one that told the FDA and Menu Foods about it. Seems to me the poor fella be wrong on several counts.
Hey, ya gotta know, this is the most fun of it all.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Maureen Says:
May 8th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
yeah, it’s one thing the plant workers don’t care enough to notice, but the FDA not knowing the dif between RPC/WG and FLOUR?!
*I* can tell the difference between wheat/rice/oatmeal/potato flours. heck, they even smell different!
*allows head to explode again*
May 8th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Did you hear about the baby formula thing in China? It was mentioned in USAToday a couple of weeks ago. They sold baby formula that was only chalk and water and babies starved to death. This spiked wheat flour thing sounds just like that. Why are we still doing business with them? (I know, I know, corporate profits, I can’t get it through my head.)
May 8th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Menusux said: Can you say deep you-know-what?
“dew-dew” HRH Bsh the frst - should be in good standing w Barb’s brother, former prez EFHutton.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
cobrokered means “free” then?
I haven’t really got an MBA right now
May 8th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
“Maureen Says:
May 8th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Some posters have seconded this since the FDA press conference this afternoon:
(From AP’s Int’l Herald Trib. article recently put up online) “U.S. investigators also have learned that the purported Chinese wheat gluten and a second ingredient, rice protein concentrate, were simple wheat flours. The flour was spiked with melamine and related, nitrogen-rich compounds to make it appear to contain more protein than it did. In tests, nitrogen levels are measured to gauge the overall protein content of food ingredients…What we discovered is these are not wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate but in fact are wheat flour contaminated by melamine,†Acheson said.†http://tinyurl.com/2mg956”
The next one with some ’splainin’ to do then, is Wilbur-Ellis, who imported the “RPC”–where were their testing folks who should have tested product when it arrived to ascertain it was RPC, as they ordered?
W-E then sold “RPC” to various entities such as Diamond, ANI, et. al.,–they misrepresented what it was they were selling to their buyers–and all because this shows there was no testing done before the product was sold & distributed. Doing GcMP testing on the shipment(s) would have revealed them to be adulterated wheat gluten and not RPC at all.
This is not to paint halos on ANI and company, because THEY should have tested what they bought from W-E–unless they knew about it all along and this is why they were feeling confident in using the “RPC” in the products which don’t have RPC on their labels….
I hope nobody signs any settlement waivers with ANY of the companies because much info now out may be of use in any legal actions against ALL of them.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
menusux said: This is not to paint halos on ANI and company
That would be one h8L of a paint job…….
May 8th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
For years the airlines have employed “tombstone technology”……if enough people die, they will fix a mechanical problem they are already aware of….but only when enough people die (not sure how many is “enough”).
This is the new stance taken by those wonderful, caring people at the FDA…….f****** dumb a*******. Oops, did I say that? That damn Kahlua & melamilk made me do it.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I am confused, so is the fish in cat and dog foods>???
Is it in human food chain??
If so, then, even the so called high end that have fish or fish meal, salmon and or herring can be contaminated and in our animal’s foods??
May 8th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
i’ll take your Kahlua comment and toast it with my Bailey’s. i’m seeing lots of new t-shirts in the making ;)
May 8th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
anon:
I like that! Petfood Lies. Nobody Buys.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
“Is it in human food chain??”
well, if we believe the government *cough*lol!~*cough* it is not in the human food supply . . .
*head explosion #3*
May 8th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Sandi said: I am confused, so is the fish in cat and dog foods>???
meals are usually from lower quality sources to begin w [even though the PFI would like us to believe they’re more nutritious - they’re not]
so what’s a quick and easy turnaround for the mela-meat that can’t be sold?
If you ask me, I say yes to all your questions. Dangerous to take a chance, since the stuff will be in more concentrated form in the meal, even if the mela-chicken contained less than the original mela-wheat-flour-labelled-every kind of gluten.
I’m not eating any farmed fish, that’s for dang sure.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
straybaby:
I think IF any of us really KNEW how widespread this contamination is, we would never eat again nor would we feed our pets. Something tells me this has gone on for years & is in just about everything. These jerks were wise enough, for a very long time, to keep the contamination low enough so that they knew damn right well nobody would ever catch it. Just got a little too greedy & upped the ante…….so my guess is that you & I & all of our pets are walking melamines.
Excuse me, my Kahlua & melamilk is calling……
May 8th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Sandi:
also, the articles I’ve read say the Chinese have been feeding mela-crap to fish for 15 yrs or so…….anyway we know whatever they put in petfood comes from the cheapest possible source so:
is it in there?
does a bear sh8t in the forest?
do petfood companies EVER lie?
May 8th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
I keep wondering about that chicken that they quarantined. Will that go into the pet food? Is it there already? Where is a good homemade pet food page that I don’t have to pay $50 for? Did you see AVMA’s link? $50 for 5 pages on making your own cat food.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
so much for grain free petfoods.
mela-chicken will be in chicken meal.
mela-fish will be in fish meal. and in fish.
The FDA wouldn’t go to all this trouble concocting bs for nothing.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Ok, guys, why is my name in blue & just about everybody else is black……am I on a fecal roster or what? Did I say one bad word too many? Oops…..melamilk, kills what few live brain cells are left……
May 8th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
JanC Says:
May 8th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
sadly, i agree with you. and here i was wondering what effect the 9/11 air had on my pets . . . . silly me.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Susan, try these for starters:
http://www.catinfo.org/index.htm
http://www.holisticat.com/rawrecipe.html
http://www.catnutrition.org/recipes.html
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/
http://www.drpitcairn.com/
May 8th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
I just had a very sobering conversation with the FDA today. Regarding pet food: 1. They do not have recall authority. 2. They can only request that a company issue a recall, unless laws have been broken and the company is charged with something. 3. If a company chooses not to investigate pet food complaints, it is their perogative. The FDA can make a company aware of problems, but has no authority to force the company to act.
This answers why so many animals are still getting sick on non-recalled brands.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
YOU KNOW WHAT FDA STANDS FOR F_ _ KING DUMB @SSES TELL ME ITS NOT A 3RD WORLD COUNTRY HERE NOW ,IS ,WE NEED TO TAKE BACK THE GOVERNMENT -GET RID OF DUANE AND HIS JOB AT THE JOKE FDA AND GET REAL INSPECT (EVERY TING AT OUR PORT AND NOT IMPOET FROM DUMPS LIKE CHINA AND COUNTRIES THAT WISH WE WHERE DEAD ANY HOW ,AND WHILE SPEAKING OF NOT CARING IF DEAD IN CLUDE OUR OWN COMPANIES THAT POISON US FOR BIG MONEY ,THIS IS FAR WORSE THAN SAD ITS SICK AND WE ARE SILLY ASS PEOPLE FOR TRUSTING GOVERMENT TO KEEP US SAFE WHEN THEY CAN SCREW US FOR MONEY IN HEALTH CARE AND POISON OUR PETS IS THE LOW BLOW ,
May 8th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
I have a friend that works at Walmart. She told me that they pulled all the Tilapia fish because it was recalled due to suspected “contamination”. She says they get in great shipments of it from China and can’t keep it in stock because it is so popular with the hispanic members of our community. I would avoid all farmed fish.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Stray baby –THANK YOU for those links!
May 8th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Susan : look up littlebigcat.com http://tinyurl.com/28r4ud
howl911 sidebar has numerous books. Suggest holisticat if you have a cat. I have no commercial interest in any of them. Michael Fox’s page has recipes.http://tinyurl.com/28r4ud
Series of recipe links here: http://tinyurl.com/ynl5uc
ALSO: why fish is dangerous for cats anyway: http://tinyurl.com/24ujen
May 8th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
This is almost funny, round and round we go, pass the buck, who gets sick we dunno!
It’s in the animal feed, not just dog and cat food. Betcha Cattle are involved too, it’s awfully quiet about the cattle. Too quiet.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
The PFI and Duane will be happy to sit back and let the FDA take all the heat for this if we let them. I am not going to let them. I am sorry…..the Chinese ingredients were purchased by the manufacturers, were put into products by the manufacturers and we paid good money to the pet food companies for their poisoned food when it should have been safe. For any one who has ever baked or cooked, you know that the cookie or the bread looks very different in its finished state than when you were looking at the raw ingredients sitting on the counter. The pet food mfrs. were the ones that SAW the raw ingredients. Consumers did not, veterinarians did not, and the FDA did not. We saw and used only the finished product.
I fault the FDA for extremely poor communication and very poor decision making after-the-fact. I am sorry to discover they are so understaffed and do not have recall authority from congress. But I do not fault them for having difficulty figuring out what went into the pet food and therefore how it interacted. The FDA had to test and guess just like the rest of us did and like the independent labs did. Menu and others KNEW all what went in to the pet food, knew when and where they got it, and they weren’t tellin’! Shame Shame Shame.
The melachicken and melapork would not even be being discussed had not the unscrupulous pet food mfrs. dumped the poisoned food on farmers and ranchers to create this mess.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
coming up on CNN “What do you have in common with the family dog?”
lol!~ we all ate Mela Meats!!!
May 8th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
I have been thinking the same thing. You have got that straight..notnewnews..Cattle eat grain unless they are grass fed. Hummm. I wonder when that ball will drop.Who is covering up for the cattle industry? Where is the beef!!!
May 8th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
As many of you,I am very confused about this wheat flour,rice protein,etc
Just got some premium cat food,supposedly “healthy”,ocean white fish ,shrimp,sardines and others,and some dry food with fish meal.Does that mean I should stop feeding them this food?I have 5 cats and I am worried sick.I am going out of my mind.Will this ever end?
May 8th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
I have a dog & I don’t have a clue what to feed her anymore. First I had to avoid wheat gluten, then it was rice protein concentrate, then it was any gluten…..now I don’t know how many of the different flours they use might be contaminated……are they all melaflours? What about fish meal, something a lot of them use? Chicken? I’m wondering if any of the ingredients are not contaminated.
Making me crazy with worry. Excuse me while I mix another drink……I need something to calm down my melanerves.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
http://sdsternpr.com/chemnutra.....timony.pdf
Page 56-57-US House Commerce Committee Testimony-May 2007-Stephen Stern-
“We import high-quality nutritional and pharmaceutical chemicals from China to the United States. Those products come from manufacturers either known to us personally or recommended to us by a number of reuptable and well-qualified trading agents with whom we have had long-standing relationships…
“Until March 8th of this year, ChemNutra had never had an issue or incident with its Chinese manufacturers, all of whom provide certificates of analysis of their products, which is STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE FOR US IMPORTERS….”
Note–testing by ChemNutra would have at LEAST revealed that this was wheat flour, not wheat gluten. And this should have set off some bells & whistles while it was still in their warehouse for no other reason, possibly than this was not what they paid for. It may have prompted someone to do futher testing on the product and the melamine may have been found at that point. The paperwork said it was wheat gluten, so ChemNutra said it was wheat gluten without testing one bit of it. And they sold it as wheat gluten to the pet food producers as wheat gluten.
Wilbur-Ellis is is the same leaky boat because they failed to do the same thing–test the “RPC” to determine whether that’s what it was or not. Testing here too would have revealed that it was wheat flour, not RPC–and that may have prompted more testing and the discovery of the melamine. W-E sold the wheat flour as RPC to the pet food producers without testing it as well.
The pet food companies are just as guilty because none of THEM tested what they bought from ChemNutra & Wilbur-Ellis to determine whether it was what they bought and paid for. If neither ChemNutra nor Wilbur-Ellis tested the product, the required testing here by all pet food manufacturers would have determined that the substance they were shipped was neither wheat gluten nor RPC–and this should have been the fail-safe to keep it out of pet foods.
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/protltr.html
Letter to Food Manufacturers Regarding Legal Responsibilities for the Safety of Food Ingredients
May 7, 2007 FDA
“Manufacturers are responsible for taking their own measures to ensure the safety of their products. “
May 8th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
menusux Says: at 5:47 pm
ChemNutra Mission Statement
Corollary to the Peter Principle is that a person, on reaching their level of incompetence, will surround themselves with even more incompetent subordinates.
May 8th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Can somebody lay this out in plain English for me and help me understand? So they took wheat flour, spiked it with melamine, and labeled and sold it as wheat gluten? Is this correct? No one is saying whether or not wheat flower is now suspect. PLEASE HELP!!!
May 8th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
yes, that is what they did. also labeled as RPC.
“No one is saying whether or not wheat flower is now suspect.”
that will be Thursday’s press conference update I believe . . . or perhaps the Friday Night Other Shoe Drop?
May 8th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Well go Lou Dobbs! He almost sounded like a disgruntled pet owner.
May 8th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Garyn Says:
May 8th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
“FDA will look at other ingredients if they start to see unusual spikes of unexplained illnesses.â€
………..
Face it. We are nothing more than experimental subjects. Maybe this is a way to cull the baby boomers. We know Social Security will be down the tubes and there aren’t enough workers to support them.
THIRD WORLD COUNTRY = USA
May 8th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Can hardly wait for the next FDA press conference.
May 8th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Heath,
I agree completly. I do have all 3 you listed and I thought O didn’t eat all that bad. Just couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. Now I know. NOTHING!
May 8th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
When tests are done for melamine, isn’t it the glutens that have been tested and found contaminated? And if so, then the melamine is in glutens as well as wheat flour? Are finished products tested, also?
May 8th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
RE; Eric Says:
“No one is saying whether or not wheat flower is now suspect. PLEASE HELP!!!
If you follow “their” logic - there is no reason to suspect wheat flour because there is no economic advantage to spiking wheat flour.
Wheat flour has low protein levels and isn’t used to boost the protein levels of substandard formulations.
The whole point of spiking the wheat flour was so that they could sell it as the higher price wheat gluten without all that tedious and costly processing.
May 8th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Gee…I wonder what was in the wheat flour bag…….I feel more recalls on the way…..
May 8th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
What do we do now? Were’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t!