"Complete Review" of FDA Ordered

President Obama has ordered a review of the FDA in light of several recent cases of food contamination and safety issues, which included melamine-tainted pet food and infant formula.

FSIS Orders Testing of Retail Meat and Poultry

The FSIS issued a notice today ordering investigators from three departments to collect samples of processed food items such as baby food, meatballs and sausages for melamine testing. For more details about the sampling plan, the investigator's duties, as well as a list of examples of common milk-derived ingredients, see the notice.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSISNotices/97-08.pdf

I think this is a step in the right direction, as long as there is transparency in the process and results are publicized. More testing of meat and poultry (animal tissue) needs to be done, as well. Some testing was done last year when it was determined that pigs and other animals were eating melamine tainted animal feed. Some animals made it to channels of trade and others were held back. I think it's pretty safe to assume that melamine has not been removed from animal feed since last year. Therefore testing of animal feed, needs to be done as well. Fertilizer too. Non-dairy ingredients such as vegetable proteins and chemical preservatives also need further scrutiny. Melamine could very well be in many more ingredients than previously thought, and knowledge of just how widespread the situation is could help us shore up the safety of our food supply. It might take years, but the FSIS notice indicates that the scope of melamine contamination is being taken seriously.

NYT Editorial on Melamine

Excellent editorial from the NYT IHT about the melamine that ends up in our whole and processed food, regardless of whether the origin of the contamination is China or the US - or any other country for that matter. If you're wondering why the FDA, other agencies and food producers in the US are not publicizing (if they are even doing) any testing of their own products; products made, grown, manufactured, packaged, sold in the US - wonder no more. The author of this editorial, James E. McWilliams, really drives home the point that melamine contamination has to stop, regardless of where it starts.

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.

Kidney Stones: Too Much Salt or Too Much Melamine?

Researchers and experts on kidney stones say that they are being found in children as young as 5 and 6 years old. A New York Times article out today states that doctors attribute it to, among other things, the amount of salt found in items such as "packaged meals".

“What we’ve really seen is an increase in the salt load in children’s diet,” said Dr. Bruce L. Slaughenhoupt, co-director of pediatric urology and of the pediatric kidney stone clinic at the University of Wisconsin. He and other experts mentioned not just salty chips and French fries, but also processed foods like sandwich meats; canned soups; packaged meals; and even sports drinks like Gatorade, which are so popular among schoolchildren they are now sold in child-friendly juice boxes.

It is my understanding that analyses of kidney stones is possible. Without removing them and analyzing the kidney stones in humans, how can one tell with certainty what is causing the stone? If it is possible, I'd like to know. If we are going by word of mouth as to what the parent said the child has been eating, then what? How is salt the primary culprit?

Some of the the unfortunate pets who lost their lives had large kidney stones that were studied by researchers after they died. It sounds silly, but is it really only a coincidence that recent research indicates that kidney stones are on the rise in ages where they were rarely seen before, and an October 2008 report states that kidney disease is up 30% in the past decade, and that melamine, a chemical that when ingested can cause kidney stones and kidney failure, has been found in the human food supply in milk, eggs, meat? We know that manufacturers of "packaged meals" use raw ingredients such as wheat gluten, egg powder and vegetable proteins...items that could come from China, a place where melamine is used as an additive in these foods. 

Is there research that lists drinking water more as a preventative measure to avoid kidney stones? Or are we being told that we need to drink more water, pee more often and eat less salt to avoid kidney stones? Or are we being told that we need to drink more water, pee more often to flush out the low levels of melamine are are supposedly not a health risk? I guess we need to drink and pee a lot to make sure those low levels of melamine don't develop into anything else? 

When my son was sick last December with unexplainable severe stomach pain, the doctor didn't check for kidney stones, the doctor didn't ask me what my son was eating. I knew my son was eating the Lotte Koala cookies and other "prepared meals". We immediately eliminated them and pared down his diet to some whole foods, he drank water and got some rest. It was an instinct to eliminate those cookies and other crap from his diet (and the recent wheat gluten/raw ingredients pet food scare from earlier in 2007 in the back of my mind). Maybe the medical community needs to do more to relay info about "packaged meals" or note it in their files for later use and for researchers to access. 

In December of 2007, was it the salt that gave my son a severe stomach ache and possible kidney stone - or was it the astronomically high levels of melamine in the cookies?