Tainted Shrimp Feed From US Exported To 13 Countries
Shrimp feed made by a US firm using melamine as a binding agent has been exported to 13 countries (subsc. req.).
Michael Herndon, a spokesman for the FDA in Washington, said Thursday that the melamine-contaminated products made in the U.S., including feed ingredients and shrimp feed, may have been exported by Zeigler Bros. Inc., a feed manufacturer in Gardners, Pennsylvania, to 13 countries. They are Panama, Venezuela, Belize, Suriname, Costa Rica, Honduras, Ecuador, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Gambia, Lebanon and Canada.
More excerpts after the jump.
From the WSJ:
The source of the melamine in Zeigler’s feed is a binding agent prepared by another U.S. company, Uniscope Inc., of Johnstown, Colorado. Uniscope works with several distributors in the U.S. and more than a dozen international distributors, providing products to more than 30 countries, according to its Web site.
Uniscope, a family-owned company that employs eight people, had been using Tembec’s product to make binding agents for livestock, fish and shrimp feed. Spokesman Charles Russell said the company had been unaware of the contamination and discovered it only when it tested the resin it received from Tembec.
In a recent interview, Mr. Russell wouldn’t disclose how much of the binding agent was produced and specifically to whom it was sold. But he did say that the product was sold to feed companies and distributors both domestically and internationally.
(Thanks mike)
June 7th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
well, this is just swell, isn’t it? these foreign shrimp farms put the gulf coast shrimpers out of business… can’t even buy gulf shrimp anymore, and this melashrimp comes back to us in our supermarkets and fish markets. smooth move there.
June 7th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Pat, looks like they are selling it domestically, too, so you can still get your fix of melashrimp. Probably have been for years. Notice once again, no brand names are mentioned. This is rotten to the core.
June 7th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
So, it really isn’t all about Chinese products. There are American-made poisonous feeds being sold, as well. What’s the response to this, then? Boycott all American-made goods? It was easy to say boycott all things Chinese (albeit sometimes difficult to find alternatives), but now life has become even more complicated. Is this why our gov’t. didn’t go after the Chinese since they probably all knew that we do exactly the same thing here?
If it’s in the animal/fish feed, it would really pay to look at ‘human-grade’ food, as well. The past seven years have seen our gov’t. agencies decimated. There is very little protection left for consumers. We no longer rate. The gov’t. non-response to Katrina was not an anomaly. The only difference there was that it played out live on TV screens throughout the world. We’re on our own, now, just as abandoned.
I feel like I’m living in the novel “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair. We’ve regressed over one hundred years in terms of safety and consumer protections.
June 7th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
no more shrimp for me, guess i’ll have to eat chicken… no wait, can’t do that. maybe a nice pork chop…. er, nope can’t do that either. maybe a succulent catfish… well, hmmm, maybe not. eggs? not. beef? mutton? no and no. excuse me while i break out the 30:30 and go looking for a deer to bring down. hate to do it but they’re about the only things left around here that haven’t been eating melacrap. time to break out the fishing poles, too, but no trout or salmon; something the fish farmers haven’t gotten to yet… sea bass maybe, tautog. you know, i used to think those survivalist types were wacky as all getout, but not anymore…
the way things are going, that risk assessment is going to have to be revised again to include another large helping of balderdash. bon appetit!
June 7th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
We are turning into a rogue nation.
June 7th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
I am buying eggs, chicken, sheep, and beef from tiny local farms. They are much more humane than the factory farms, and as close to organic as they can get. They don’t have the acreage to spare for the buffer zone that NOP certification requires. I have found out I have been fooled all these years. These farms are cheaper than the grocery store. I’ve decided I have to do as much as I can from small, private businesses and stay away from BIG BUSINESS as much as possible.
June 7th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Susan, I think you’re on the right track, but if these small farmers can’t get anything but melafeed, the only truly clean meats will be the grass-fed animals; the beef and the mutton, in autumn. Farmers that have enough acreage to grow their own hay and silage will have clean meats. I live in a wilderness area and game is an option. I’m not a fan, really, but the way things are going I prefer it to what’s happening at the neighborhood super-mela-markets.
June 7th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
“A World Of Sound Nutrition”
http://www.zeiglerfeed.com/html/
Or is this is some warped you scratch my back and we’ll scratch yours deal between U.S. and Chinese Partners in Global Crime?
(Nothing shocks me at this point)
June 7th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Carcinogenic blanket recall. June 8, Australia
The voluntary recall comes almost three weeks after the Herald revealed that blankets containing formaldehyde at levels almost 10 times the international upper safety limit were being imported from China by the Australian company Sheridan.
http://tinyurl.com/32m2ky
June 7th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Susan, I’m right there with you on buying local. I wonder, though, what do small farmers/ranchers feed their own animals? They may be just as victimized by tainted feed. They’re consumers, too, just one step up the distribution ladder from the rest of us.
June 7th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Doppelgangers -
U.S.A.
China
June 7th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Pat,
These farmers are a small co-op. They grow their own silage and feed. They pasture graze every animal including the chickens. Hunting is almost impossible here. Almost all land is posted. Because of GE and their PCB’s(I’m in the northeast), they recommend eating fish only once a month and not at all for pregnant women and small children. I’ll deal with my little farmers and my little local stores. No CVS, no Grand Union, no Walmart. That’s the best I can do.
June 7th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
So are these company’s being protected at our expense or is there something bigger the government does not want it’s citizens to know about?
Comment by Steve — March 28, 2007 @ 10:14 am
June 7th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
“The past seven years have seen our gov’t. agencies decimated. There is very little protection left for consumers. ”
this is simply untrue. there never WAS any protection for the consumer.the FDA never has had the power to truely protect the consumer. thinking this is all something new associated with a particular administration or particular FDA head obscures the reality-the fda as it has always functioned under any president has never had the teeth to control big rich businesses.
you never had any protection under the law as it is written and enacted. the FDA has never had the power and certainly not the will to do so. the fda is largely and always has been funded by the companies it is suppose to regulate. it has always been so. the fda has always been under funded by congress and it’s employees have always been underpaid vis a vis comparable scientists of their ilk in the commercial sector. that’s a ripe environment for corruption.
herbert hoover- who was by the way once a pharmacist- is responsible for signing into law what little protection there is- and if i am not mistaken that was oh a little more than 7 years ago.
June 7th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Steve Says:
June 7th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
“A World Of Sound Nutritionâ€
http://www.zeiglerfeed.com/html/
================
I think their line:
Monster Diet: What’s in a name? may sum it up?
June 7th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Does anyone ever check out the ebay bids at the very bottom of this page? Right now there is an auction for a 15kg bag of Royal Canin from Australia.
And the beat goes on…..
June 7th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Susan, sounds like you’ve found a good alternative! it’s a crime about the heavy metals contamination in fish… to say nothing of the shellfish that i used to love so much. it’s getting tougher and tougher to eat a decent meal these days.
June 7th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
I never would have imagined blankets were full of formaldehyde at any level. I also have to wonder about the urea-formaldehyde resin that Tembec is still making while the FDA investigates it safety and dilution rates, no doubt. Can that possibly be necessary in a feed? What on this good green Earth is happening? I agree with Phoebe, it’s like The Jungle meets A Brave New World. Science, Capitalism and Politicians with an agenda have run amok. Things have gotten too big to rein back in. I am for stopping all imports from China, as introduced by the enery and commerce commision, until they get their house in order, and WE DO THE SAME WITH OURS!! This has got to stop!!
At least now, we have some inkling of what has been going on while we weren’t looking.
June 7th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Steve I agree monster diet fits. I also think these people should sample the food or the fish . Maybe the countries they sold the product to will want to extradite them and prosecute them to the fullest extent of their law . Maybe they will force them to tell what they know about who is involved in this deal and what country they live in!!!!
I also feel all imports from China should be stopped. I found www.hkex.com.hk/listedconews/s.....fll5_e.pdf interesting.
June 7th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
mittens Says:
June 7th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
True, Mittens. I have been reading about Aspartame.
June 7th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Mittens, to clarify, I agree with you. It goes farther back and is entrenched in the lack of teeth in the FDA. (That might not have been clear.)
June 7th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Theodore Roosevelt(R) laid the groundwork for consumer protections against tainted foods decades before Hoover. I do see your point, however, mittens.
“Sinclair’s account of workers falling into meat processing tanks and being ground, along with animal parts, into “Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard”, gripped public attention. The morbidity of the working conditions as well as the exploitation of children and women alike that Sinclair exposed, showed the corruption taking place inside the meat packing factories. Foreign sales of American meat fell by one-half. In order to calm public outrage and demonstrate the cleanliness of their meat, the major meat packers lobbied the Federal government to pass legislation paying for additional inspection and certification of meat packaged in the United States. [3] Their efforts, coupled with the public outcry, led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which established the Food and Drug Administration.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle
Ironically, our current gov’t. is fighting ranchers here who want to inspect their own beef for Mad Cow. That’s what I mean by regression.
To clarify, the past seven years have seen the decimation of gov’t. agencies (such as FEMA and the FDA) that once provided some measure of care and protection for citizens. During these years, however, many long-standing, career workers have resigned due to what they believed to be the untenable incompetence from the political appointees that headed those agencies. They are not replaced, so the agencies get smaller and smaller with corresponding reduction in effectiveness. FEMA is a glaring example.
While the FDA may never have had real ‘teeth’, they did put the word out about tainted products in years past and those products (like Tylenol) were recalled. We’ve never had the FDA announce that they refuse to name names (or tainted ingredients) in my memory.
June 7th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Are these shrimp raised in the same toilet sludge as the other fish? Pay a visit to World Net Daily and the 6/4/07 article covers the contaminated, carcinogen, pesticide, anti-biotic, sewer sludge, toilet fish that are then imported here for us to scarf up! No thanks, no fish grown in poop for me. Just the thought makes me ill. How and why would anyone eat fish or feed it to their pets is beyond me cause look how much in the article comes from the mela in everything place. DISGUSTING, utterly disgusting. Think twice bout the next mouthful of crap ohhh I meant (carp) you eat. YECH!
June 7th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Toilet fish link: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/n.....E_ID=56004
June 7th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56004 Do not know why the whole link didnt post but this is missing part
June 7th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Phoebe, don’t forget about the decimation and corruption of the EPA as well. You can now redefine any concept. What exactly is clean air or clean water–what do you mean by “water?” Even the definitions have become diluted. There is a definite common denominator, dilution of standards.
June 7th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Well, on behalf of my (always) shrimp-loving and (now) Costa Rican cat . . . #&&^@%!$%@$#@#@(!!!!
June 7th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
To DMS:
” Even the definitions have become diluted. There is a definite common denominator, dilution of standards.”
So that’s where the FDA got their dilution theory from….!
Spot on, Phoebe: this has been the case in agencies across the board. Time mag had a great article last year detailing all the resignations and unqualified political crony appointees.
June 7th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Pat - I hate to mention this — but, the deer are probably scavenging those cattle feed pellets. You know, the mela-stick-it-together ones, remember those?
June 7th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
“Is this why our gov’t. didn’t go after the Chinese since they probably all knew that we do exactly the same thing here?”
Good Point. The posts tonight are outstanding, by the way.
What this really means is that we’ve been eating contaminated, tainted food for years, just like our pets.
ugh.
June 7th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Steve:
“A World Of Sound Nutritionâ€
http://www.zeiglerfeed.com/html/
This is sickening. How much more morally and ethically corrupt can you be? Sound nutrition? My head is about to explode…
June 7th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
More than I want to know…..
Genetically KRAFTed Foods
http://www.krafty.org/
Toxic Baby Bottles
http://www.environmentcaliforn.....by-bottles
God help us all….
June 8th, 2007 at 12:31 am
The ‘crazy conspiracy theorists’ are looking a lot less ‘crazy’ now, aren’t they.
After all, once its shown to be fact its no longer ‘theory’, and most of them have been crowing about crap in food, vaccines, etc, and about megaglobs for YEARS, sometimes decades.
Just a thought.
June 8th, 2007 at 1:44 am
Homegrown, at least there is some good news:
http://www.gefoodalert.org/
Thank God for the farmers and other groups who fought against the GMO alfalfa and bentgrass. And r-BGH. Hopefully this is a trend for the future as people are beginning to realize the danger and damage GE crops are causing our environment, health, and economies. It’s a very strange world where the farmers who don’t want to plant it have to take the USDA to court to defend their rights. I’m so glad they stood their ground. Their Own Ground.
June 8th, 2007 at 4:10 am
[…] Shrimp feed contaminated with melamine. […]
June 8th, 2007 at 6:40 am
kat, there are very few cows here, and we’re on an island so it’s unlikely that deer would have access to melacrap. they raid a lot of bird feeders though… wonder what’s in wild bird seed/feed these days?
June 8th, 2007 at 7:06 am
In the state where I live the farm bureau supports a bill that would take away your right to know what milk contains growth hormones. They quote one farmer as stating the milk does not taste different than untreated milk. Well it is not about taste it is about the growth hormone being past to people , mainly children.
Yet the cooperative extention puts out a bulletin on proper disposal of dead cows saying they should be buried in the ground or in a compost pile. They reason for the bulletin , the farmers complaints about super size coyotes that after eating dead cows are now killing calves. The cooperative extension explains the coyotes are huge from eating the dead cows that have been treated with growth hormones!!!
Isn’t the company that owns the growth hormone M? Are they also doing business in China?
June 8th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Are other horse owners who feed pelleted feeds/supplements checking to find out what the binder is in these products?I try to stay away from pelleted anything but sometimes it’s impossible.
I never see anything on the tags which refers to the binding agent.(no surprise there I guess)
Lorna
June 8th, 2007 at 9:08 am
ZEIGLER also makes pellet food for ornamental and PET FISH that I would
stay away from as a precaution.
Also, you might want to check with other pellet fish food companies to see if they ever used or currently UNISCOPE as a supplier of their binding agents. This would also include rabbit food.
I contacted a fish food company and wanted to know if they ever used or currently use UNISCOPE as a supplier of their binding agents - I never received another email after that. Odd, since the guy was emailing me back and forth a few times and then cut me off after my UNISCOPE question. I promptly threw the food in the garbage.
June 8th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Oh look, one more example of how little regard the Chinese government has on life:
“China is considering lifting a ban on trade in tiger parts”
http://www.reuters.com/article.....5420070608
June 8th, 2007 at 10:51 am
How can We tell if We have one of the blankets? Does anyone know?
June 8th, 2007 at 10:53 am
May, that is just sickening.
June 8th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
The BBC has quite an article on how Chinese businesses treat Chinese people:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asi.....733045.stm
June 8th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
And our Gov. loves China. don’t tell Me they don’t know what’s going on. and there is a lot child labor, too. I will not support this kind of thing.
June 8th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
May, that’s just horrible. Tigers, just through poaching alone are on the brink of extinction. The article is right about the people needing to be educated on using modern medicines. If you’ve ever seen the dvd Two Brothers (about two tigers separated when young that meet up again later) there is a wonderful documentary on the bonus section on tigers…very worth watching.
June 8th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
I’ve been googling formaldehyde and blankets. The US refused to import those Australian blankets. I saw on alibaba.com that China makes Australian wool blankets. Is it really Australian wool or not? No way to know. Anyway, apparently formaldehyde has been used for flame retardancy, colorfastness and wrinkle resistance. Those particular blankets were to be used for hotels, hospitals, nursing homes. The reason for formaldehyde use could be any or all of the three. In the synthetic blankets, melamin/formaldehyde resin (that sounds familiar, doesn’t it) can be used to glue the fibers together. There are a ton of websites on where to get formaldehyde free products. Now I just need to figure out how to afford them.
June 8th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Debbie, I saw that about the tigers, movie. I loved it, but i love tigers anyway.
June 8th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
May, I tried to send your tiger info over to Petconnection. I can’t get it right. How do You all do that?
June 8th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Trudy,
Tigers are my absolute favorite animal, and I do love them all. They have such presence and beauty. I cried all the way through that movie. You’d think in this day and age, people wouldn’t be so heartless and callous, but look what some people do to other people, not to mention what is being done to our food supply in the name of $$$
June 8th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Not sure if I’ve posted this on this forum or not, but US citizens need to be aware that most US poultry feed is “supplemented” with arsenic:
http://www.organicconsumers.or.....060405.cfm
And now the poultry poop will be used as “green energy”:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,275042,00.html
It is being modeled after similar plants in the UK, but arsenic use in poultry feed is BANNED in the UK.
June 8th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I’m sure they are already using tigers. I went to one of their herb sites and you can buy parts of tigers. They are the scum of the earth. And ignorant!! I have bengals. I love them so much.
June 8th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
I sure am glad we raise our own beef, and get chickens from a local man. All of our beef is raised on grains and hay or silage we grow ourselves. This is just sickening….all of it.
June 8th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
ugh i hammered my last entry- it was herbert hoover who was then a senator who sponsored legislation to make certain drugs available only by doctor written precription. he had been a pharmacist. this is still a bone of contention with doctors and pharmacists. as many may know you can go to the pharmacy in europe and the pharmacist can prescribe you a drug- without a doctor. not so here.
i blame global warming for my screw up-actually i was at work and away from my sources.
the first laws governing the saftey of drugs were passed in the 20’s and 30s including the basis for the FDA’s role and it’s unfortunate inability to enforce. teddy roosevelt was not involved in this. it came about due to a massive poisoning of school children with what was basically antifreeze in medicine. it was later that stronger drug laws were enacted rather unwillingly by kennedy-he opposed them until the whole thalidimide crisis-a drug that nearly made it to market in the US.
the first controls over agriculture were indeed the doings of teddy. but we are talking about the FDA which did not exist in the early 1900s.
this doesn’t change my basic premise-the FDA has never been adequetly empowered by law to protect you. it has little to do with the last 7 years. it HAS NEVER HAD THE POWER because the laws of our country do not give them the power. bitching about the current administration ignores the real problem. the fda stood as it thus does under clinton, bush 1 , reagan etc. we need to bitch about the laws that regulate our food and drug safety not the arbitrary administration of the moment.
June 8th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
er hubert HUMPHREY. well i give up. that’s hubert humphrey not hoover. blah!
June 9th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Is the shrimp feed used in cat food? Is it used in Fish Foods??
I am also becoming suspicious of any dog/cat food manufacturer, since I understand that many are not testing their foods.
Sandi