FDA Says No Pork Recall Coming Despite Contamination
Even though humans appear safe from melamine-related illness at the moment officials have not lifted the quarantine on hogs from farms in eight states ;California, Kansas, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina and Utah. Hogs on farms in those states tested positive for melamine from eating salvage pet food that contained ingredients which had been spiked with melamine by Chinese manufacturers to increase the price that they could charge for their products.
While the FDA and Department of Agriculture continue to test hogs for melamine and investigate how this crisis originated officials in Canada and South Africa, who also had pets killed and made ill from melamine poisoning, followed the US' lead and began testing Chinese imports of pet food ingredients. They are also investigating pet food manufacturing plants to see if they are in any way responsible for the pet food crisis.
Canadian officials, hoping to ward off any incidence of melamine reaching the human food supply, have begun testing all vegetable protein, wheat gluten, rice protein complex and corn gluten shipments imported from China for melamine. Shipments are being stopped and tested at the border to prevent any shipment from accidentally making it into Canada. CBC news reported that Canadian officials confirmed that last July, the same Chinese company that supplied melamine-contaminated wheat gluten for pet food also shipped wheat gluten to a British Columbia feed mill, which turned it into food for fish farms that has since been consumed by people.
US investigators were just recently cleared by the Chinese government to visit the factories in China where the US manufacturers purchased the tainted ingredients to determine if the products were deliberately tainted with melamine. It is alleged that Chinese companies routinely add melamine to pet food and pet food ingredients because it boots the nitrogen level of the product. In order to determine the protein content of the food companies will test the nitrogen level. High nitrogen levels mean that the Chinese companies can charge a premium price for having a high protein content. Melamine is often chosen to add to the products because it is difficult to detect in routine tests.
Published by Goth Diva
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