More info from diarist Deep Harm over at Daily Kos:
Because HVP is used in so many products, consumers can expect to see rolling recalls over subsequent weeks and months, as we saw during the pet food crisis of 2007. Consumers therefore need to take the initiative to protect their health by carefully examining labels on any processed foods they purchase and any already on pantry shelves. Keep in mind that the federal government's 'food safety' strategy serves the profit-making interests of industry, i.e., issuing narrowly focused recalls based on test results. Consumers, however, need to take an opposite approach, avoiding the consumption of all suspect products until proven safe.
(A timely update on a topic that this site has covered extensively. Thanks for this.... - promoted by lightseeker)
Suppliers in China have admitted to adding melamine to animal feed. The FDA is trying to screen out the additive, which is now blamed for many pet deaths Associated Press Photo
"A lot of animal food companies buy melamine from us to add in the animal feed," said Ji Denghui, manager of Sanming Dinghui Chemical Trading Co. based in the eastern province of Fujian. "This can lower the production cost and increase nitrogen levels."
"As far as I know, there are no rules or regulations that make this illegal. As to whether melamine is toxic or not, I believe it won't do any harm if there is only very small amount," Ji said. "Otherwise, those companies could not do that."
A few weeks ago while surfing the net to find out which pet food brands were killing America's Garfields and Fidos and learning about wheat gluten,melamine, seitan, and the intricacies of the international trade in food additives, I was mildly surprised to find that we import wheat gluten from China and found myself wondering if someone had sold America's heartland while I wasn't looking. Did a foreign country buy up all of Illinois' farmland as part of the Chicago Skyway deal? Did the current batch of incompetent boobs who pass themselves off as our government manage to misplace Kansas and Nebraska along with our national integrity, respect for humanity and the Bill of Rights while making America safe for Laissez-faire capitalism?
MSNBC has just issued a breaking news alert regarding the MenuFoods scandal.
FDA testing has confirmed that a type of rat poison - which is BANNED in the USA - was found during testing of products effected by the MenuFoods recall. Earlier, MenuFoods attempted to zero in on the wheat gluten additive as the source of the contamination. As it turns out, the batch of wheat used to make the gluten was imported from China.
This leads to a few questions:
1. We are a net exporter of wheat - WHY is wheat being imported for use in animal food products? If we have a wheat surplus, shouldn't we be using domestic sources to manufacture these products?
2. Why didn't MenuFoods catch this contamination during their initial quality control testing of the products?
The FDA will hold a press conference at 1pm. I don't know if I'll be around to cover this as I have errands to run. I'd invite any of the other FPers to update this post accordingly if I haven't done it by 1:30.
UPDATE: Here is a link to the AP article. According to the article, it's not the FDA who'll be holding the press conference, but rather, the folks who tested the foods:
Officials from the agriculture department and Cornell University's Animal Health Diagnostic Center would not immediately confirm the ABC report but scheduled a news conference Friday afternoon to release laboratory findings from tests on the pet food.
