Read a Pacific Northwest, liberal perspective on world, national, and local politics. From majestic Redmond, Washington - the Northwest Progressive Institute Official Blog.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

You are what you eat

Another day, another food contaminated with melamine.
During an ongoing media teleconference call, USDA/FDA officials have revealed that melamine-tainted “protein concentrate,” imported from China, contaminated fish meal manufactured in Canada. The tainted fish meal was then distributed to an unknown number of fish farms in the US and Canada.

Other revelations:

50,000 swine have been quarantined in Illinois due to suspect feed.

The tainted “wheat gluten” and “rice protein concentrate” at the center of the pet food recall, was actually misrepresented as such. Further tests have determined that it is wheat flour, adulterated with melamine.
As Goldy points out, this is stunning. We've been told it was wheat gluten and now there is a problem with wheat flour?

You may recall that one reason the FDA said, in effect, the risk from pork was low is because pork is just one food, and some of the chemical is probably excreted by the animal. It's the "dilution" argument.

So let's see, now we have pork, chicken and fish, in addition to all the protein additives and now wheat flour.

Why are we still importing any foodstuffs from China? This is beyond ridiculous. Clearly China's food safety system doesn't function effectively.

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