Buried at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website, says a new article in today's SF Chronicle, is this import alert, dated April 27th (emphasis added):
As of April 26, 2007, FDA had received over 17,000 consumer complaints relating to this outbreak, and those complaints included reports of approximately 1950 deaths of cats and 2200 deaths of dogs. [The FDA is still telling reporters the number is closer to 16-18 animal deaths, despite these reports.] The Agency is working with federal, state, and local governments, academia, and industry to assess the extent of the outbreak, better understand how melamine and melamine related compounds contributed to the pet deaths and illnesses, and to determine the underlying cause of the contamination.
As of April 26, 2007, FDA had collected approximately 750 samples of wheat gluten and products made with wheat gluten and, of those tested thus far, 330 were positive for melamine and/or melamine related compounds. FDA had also collected approximately 85 samples of rice protein concentrate and products made with rice protein concentrate and, of those tested thus far, 27 were positive for melamine and/or melamine related compounds. FDA's investigation has traced all of the positive samples as having been imported from China.
The FDA is now holding all imported vegetable proteins from China, "without inspection"--meaning they're not looking to see if they're contaminated, they're just assuming they are if they're from China. That's how bad the contamination is. And we still don't know how much of it has made its way into the human food chain.
So how's globalization of trade without environmental and labor protections working out for us so far?
Update: The FDA is now reporting it's in chicken feed. Currently it's known to be in feed given to chickens at 38 Indiana poultry farms; affected birds are known to have gotten into the human food supply and have probably already been eaten. Check this out:
"Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed," Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine, told the Times. "I don't know if there's a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says 'don't do it,' so everyone's doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren't they? If there's no accident, there won't be any regulation."
I'm feeling the free trade love, aren't you?
Related:
- Dog Food Secrets (warning: shocking information)
- Healthy Food for Dogs
- Raw Food Diet for Dogs
- Eat Wild
- Community Supported Agriculture
- Keeping Chickens--I am SO GLAD we keep our own chickens!!!
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