Kidney Disease on the Rise

There is a study by the National Institutes of Health reporting findings of a 30% increase in chronic kidney disease over the past decade.

Is it possible that ingesting even low levels of melamine over a decade or so has caused this increase? It's been two years since thousands of pets died from eating pet food tainted with melamine. Melamine is still being added to animal feed and is a part of the human food chain in products like milk, yogurt as well as raw ingredients like vegetable proteins added to our processed foods. No regulating agencies or food manufacturers can really say (if they know they aren't saying) how long melamine has been used in raw food ingredients. Some research indicates that it has been going on for quite a long time; perhaps many decades. It is more commonly used now? And in higher levels?

The FDA is asking manufacturers to do their own testing; they can test some products but don't have the resources to do it all themselves. Despite this, we are not hearing anything about such testing from food manufacturing companies. We are not even hearing about results that prove that low or no levels of melamine were present in foods. If I had a company that used milk protein concentrate, vegetable proteins such as soy or wheat gluten or corn protein, I would be shouting from the rooftops that my product is free and clear of melamine. Just wondering...

China is Third Biggest Supplier to U.S.

David Lazarus of the L.A. Times echoing the sentiment that the FDA is probably too lax in their enforcement, oversight and testing of food products that could possibly contain melamine in the U.S.  

FDA wants food industry to get busy

The FDA has been updating their website a lot in the past week. There is now a link that will bring you directly to a "Melamine Information" hub. From there, readers can click on a variety of links. Scroll way down the the bottom of the page and you'll find this link to a "Dear Colleague" letter designed to be read (hopefully distributed in some other fashion as well) by the U.S. Food Manufacturing Industry. It states what the public, politicians, and many resourceful bloggers, have been talking about since pet food in the U.S. was discovered to be contaminated with melamine. Three following bullet points, and the sentence that follows, highlight the concerns of the FDA: 

- Know the precise origin of each milk-derived ingredient. For example, milk-derived ingredients that are sourced from countries other than China could actually originate from China.
- Determine that milk-derived ingredients originating from China are free of melamine and its analogues prior to usage.
- For food manufactured in the last twelve months which might still be on the shelf at retail or in stock elsewhere, determine whether the food might contain any milk-derived ingredients from China. If any such foods exist, verify that they do not contain melamine or its analogues.

In addition, it would be useful for manufacturers to be alert to the possibility that non-milk-derived ingredients from China that are or may be sold on the basis of protein content, such as soy protein, also could be contaminated with melamine.

That last statement points out just how really large this problem is. We know that last year vegetable proteins from China destined as raw ingredients for processed foods for animals and humans were imported into the U.S. The FDA was not able to halt all of these shipments and from what I can tell, the FDA is now recognizing that the tainted vegetable proteins are in our food supply - in foods processed as far back as twelve months ago. That could be breakfast cereals, dry soup mixes,  candy and so on. I assume the FDA could not recall all the shipments last year - not enough resources. Are we lab rats? Is it part of the process that the FDA is using to come up with the 2.5 parts per million level of melamine that they find acceptable in food> For example, determine if that company imports vegetable protein from China for their soup mix, test it for melamine and get results, have there been any reports of illnesses from consuming that food over the last twelve months, and so on.

But this letter is also interesting because it is a request for manufacturers here in the U.S. to inspect their product for milk ingredients too. Again, the FDA doesn't have enough resources to do it all, the scope of what the FDA deals with is so broad, and that is a shame. The Hong Kong test results mentioned in my other post reveal some of the companies that must be getting some milk ingredients from China. Are these companies and others not on the list really going to step up (or just begin) this process to test here in the U.S. and if so will the public hear the results?

Get thee to this link

You really have to read From China, With Love: Melamine. While there is no doubt, to me, that we should have a closer eye on China as a food source, if not ban products outright, I am also concerned about melamine added to food from all other sources and origins, including the U.S. Not to mention that the U.S. imports food from other countries, not just China, and those countries might import ingredients from China. 

DIetary suppliments, vitamins, and more

It's not just about milk. 

FDA May 25, 2007

The Interim Melamine and Analogues Safety/Risk Assessment from FDA. It is basically a summary of the work that the FDA did after it discovered that pets were dying from eating pet food contaminated with melamine. Pet food was made with wheat and or wheat gluten contaminated with melamine. The scraps of the pet food were sold and added to animal feed for pigs, chickens and fish and sent to the U.S.  U.S livestock including pigs, chickens and fish ate the melamine tainted animal feed and were processed for human consumption. Rather than recall the pork, fish, poultry and eggs that made its way to grocery stores, the FDA decided to withhold only some processing of animals, concluding that some had already entered the channels of trade. The FDA measured the amounts of melamine in the animal tissue - our food, and found melamine to be present in the tissue. Interestingly, they also measured how much melamine is excreted in the urine of pigs who consume melamine tainted animal feed. Some melamine gets excreted in urine soon after it is consumed, but not all. Which leads to the ongoing issue of just how much melamine remains in tissue (or other parts of a living being) after long term consumption. If an animal eats melamine contaminated food and lives for any length of time before it is processed as food, how much melamine do we consume? 

I don't think it unreasonable to ask: Why the heck then is melamine added to animal feed in the first place?? It either has no function (its excreted rapidly) and should not be added to animal feed (or any food product), or it is retained, in any amount, and should not be added to animal feed or any part of the food chain. 

If you want to read all about the melamine levels in the pork, fish, poultry and eggs we eat now as a result of animals eating animal feed with melamine in it, then this document is for you.

I think the FDA should inform the public about which farms use melamine in their animal feed. I'm calling around to several companies and asking them myself. You should too. While you're at it, ask them if they import ANY of their ingredients (raw materials) from China for use in their food product. Ultimately consumers need to know if melamine is added to food whether it is added in China or any where else.