FOLLOW UP ON MELAMINE SCANDAL

Lisa McCormick of Consumer Affairs.com reports that the USDA will now test meat and poultry products, baby food, and chicken nuggets for melamine. Why? We thought melamine contamination was limited to pet foods and infant formula. Well think again. It seems to be all around us. (Seehttp://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/12/chinese_formula17.html)

The melamine story first broke way back in early 2007 when pet dogs got sick and some died after being fed pet food laced with melamine. Melamine is white, looks like milk powder and is very cheap. It is an industrial chemical used as a strengthener in concrete, but it has the unique property of mimicking protein in chemical tests for that substance. To boost the pet food product's "protein level" on the cheap, unscrupulous producers added melamine. Little did we know how widespread the practice was at that time. But soon, all manner of foods where milk or milk protein might have been used as a component were revealed to have traces of melamine. By April of 2007 it was reported in fish feed. A US company in Colorado was sanctioned for using it as a binder in fish food used at a commercial fish farm. It was soon discovered that this seemingly innocuous, indigestible solid substance could seriously affect renal functioning and initiate physiological reactions which cause it to precipitate as "stones" in animal and human kidneys. Furthermore no one had any inkling of how widespread the practice of adulterating food in China was or of the potential for impact to world health. But by September 2008 news broke that melamine had been found to be the cause of a widespread outbreak of kidney disease in Chinese infants. Melamine was found in the infant formula fed to these children. Thousands of infants were sickened and several died. The discovery caused widespread concern.

Since then, besides the pet food, fish food and infant formula, melamine has shown up in many other food products. In the US, and elsewhere, the growing list includes: Topaz Wafer Rolls, Cocoa from Canada (recently the Canadians have turned on us and barred certain milk products from the US), Vietnamese biscuits, Hong Kong Brown Eggs, Walgreens chocolate bars, many brands of US infant-formula, Chinese White Rabbit candy, Chinese-made Cadbury chocolate bars, Mr Brown coffee, Chinese-made yogurt, Dutch Lady (brand) banana and honeydew flavored milk, Silang (a brand name) potato crackers, certain kinds of puffed rice balls, as well as Indonesian-made Oreo cookies, Snickers bars and M&M candies. The scandal has even affected zoo animals. In China two young gorillas in a zoo were fed melamine-tainted milk. Both were sickened and suffered kidney related problems and are being closely monitored for kidney stones.

By late December 2008 some in the US were asking how the US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration let this happen?(See "Tainted Government by James McWilliams. Slate Dec 29, 2008) McWilliams states that China is now investigating melamine and seventeen (17) other illegal food additives..including boric acid, lye, formaldehyde and an industrial red-dye called Sudan Red used to dye plastics. (See China Digital Times (http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/12/lye-boric-acid-banned-as-food-additives-in-china/) The Chinese authorities have banned these adulterants to food. No Chinese producer can from now on use of boric acid in food preparations. That's nice. I've only known it as an eyewash, and an insecticide. It is decidedly not a food additive to my mind. But then in China, it was commonly added to Chinese noodles to increase the elasticity of the noodles. Lye and formaldehyde were also banned. Swell! One is a caustic base that will burn a hole in your jeans in a few minutes and is used in the preparation of soaps and the other is a noxious, pungent preservative. But both were in use in China as additives to certain dried seafood to make these products appear fresher and bigger. So you can see the problem. No oversight and no regulation often leads to very dangerous and costly actions.

We should not be too critical...our own President Bush had a penchant for removing regulations and limiting oversight. These behaviors of his led to the credit crisis of 2008. As a result of his actions and the collapse of the world markets many of those Chinese factories which were adulterating foods may now be out of business.

Regarding lack of oversight, let's us turn a spotlight on our own government where confidence in our FDA has suffered in recent months. How? Thanks to a penetrating report by the Associated Press we have learned how the FDA organization (under the Bush banner) plays ball with big business. As McWilliams reports in his Slate piece, once the FDA finally discovered the level of melamine in the baby formula sold in the US.."its first order of business was to set up a conference call to warn the companies that produce 90% of the worlds milk powder--Abott Labs, Mead Johnson, and Nestle." But when it came to alerting the public, about the health threat, the FDA remained silent until the AP filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the test results and published them in late November. Such behavior from organizations that should be the "watchdogs" of industry and protectors of the citizen's safety does not engender our respect or confidence.

What can a concerned citizen do? Send letters to you congressman and senator about this problem. On a more practical and immediate level, avoid prepared food products that might have milk or milk-product as a component..and keep in mind that includes certain poultry and animal meats we do not often associate with milk...such as prepared sausages and of course...hot dogs. That's why the FDA has begun its belated testing of meats and poultry products. Let's hope they do a better job!