Northman's Fury

Man, this pet food recall is one of those stories that just keep getting bigger and bigger the more you dig. Today’s New York Times has a story saying that use of melamine to falsely inflate the protein count in feed products is widespread in China. While the story focus is on animal feed, it is important to remember that the wheat gluten that started this whole recall scandal was listed as “human grade” and could have been used in products for human consumption.

The link to China has set off concerns among critics of the Food and Drug Administration that ingredients in pet food as well as human food, which are increasingly coming from abroad, are not being adequately screened.

“They have fewer people inspecting product at the ports than ever before,” says Caroline Smith DeWaal, the director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. “Until China gets programs in place to verify the safety of their products, they need to be inspected by U.S. inspectors. This open-door policy on food ingredients is an open invitation for an attack on the food supply, either intentional or unintentional.”

The prospects for melamine entering our food is already quite high, but the real surprise is just how often the food supply has been tampered with.

The Department of Agriculture has also stepped in. On Thursday, the agency ordered more than 6,000 hogs to be quarantined or slaughtered after some of the pet food ingredients laced with melamine were accidentally sent to hog farms in eight states, including California.

The pet food case is also putting China’s agricultural exports under greater scrutiny because the country has had a terrible food safety record.

In recent years, for instance, China’s food safety scandals have involved everything from fake baby milk formulas and soy sauce made from human hair to instances where cuttlefish were soaked in calligraphy ink to improve their color and eels were fed contraceptive pills to make them grow long and slim.

I can see why people are getting concerned about the whole factory farm method of food production. This is scary stuff.

Channeling my inner geek for a moment, one of my favourite Science Fiction writers, and legitimate scientist, David Brin, has a blog, which I just managed to find. I have a feeling I'll be spending a good chunk of time reading through the past entries for the next couple of days. The link t his blog is now in the sidebar.

Del Monte Foods has confirmed that the melamine-tainted wheat gluten used in several of its recalled pet food products was supplied as a "food grade" additive, raising the likelihood that contaminated wheat gluten might have entered the human food supply.

"Yes, it is food grade," Del Monte spokesperson Melissa Murphy-Brown wrote in reply to an e-mail query. Del Monte issued a voluntary recall Saturday for several products under the Gravy Train, Jerky Treats, Pounce, Ol' Roy, Dollar General and Happy Trails brands.

Wheat gluten is sold in both "food grade" and "feed grade" varieties. Either may be used in pet food, but only "food grade" gluten may be used in the manufacture of products meant for human consumption. Published reports have thus far focused on tainted pet food, but if the gluten in question entered the human food supply through a major food products supplier and processor, it could potentially contaminate thousands of products and hundreds of millions of units nationwide.

LINK via Crooks and Liars

I hadn't been too worried about this considering all of my dog's food was bought last summer for the sea lift, prior to any of this wheat gluten entering the food supply. However, my food tends to be purchased on a more frequent basis. I've worked with melamine. I don't want to consume it.