Country Of Origin Labeling Needed on Processed Foods

Today's FDA's announcement makes me wonder about the food and feed meeting this criteria that has already entered the U.S. (and other countries) and is part of the channels of trade, i.e., already on store shelves. How are consumers supposed to know what foods contain raw ingredients from China? Does the FDA or another agency have a list of worldwide manufacturers that use Chinese-made raw ingredients? The FDA or other agencies also need to do some testing of food and feed manufactured in the U.S. as well to determine whether melamine is being used as an additive or a binder.

Heating Food That Contains Melamine

Since the introduction of plastic melamine dishware products, people were told not to heat them in a microwave or put them in a dishwasher because melamine, when heated, breaks down and leaches into the food we eat on that dishware.

What about when the food itself has melamine in it? If melamine is in eggs, milk powder, vegetable protein, gluten, etc., what happens to the food, the properties of the food, when we heat it? And what happens to us when that heated melamine is ingested? If there is melamine in food, and you heat your food, and your food is eaten off of unsafe melamine...well, you get the idea.

Eggs are the focus of the latest melamine-in-food incident. We do heat eggs. At high temperatures. We also heat foods containing dairy ingredients, wheat and vegetable proteins. Are we exponentially raising the dangers and risks to our health by ingesting these heated food products that contain melamine? I think this would be an excellent reason why NO melamine in ANY level is acceptable in whole or processed food.