Contaminated Animal Feed Responsible for Melamine Baby Milk

[PORKER]

Food Safety
Nestle Says Contaminated Animal Feed Responsible for Melamine in Baby Milk
Source: FLEXNEWS
28/11/2008

28 Nov, 2008 - Nestle has said that contaminated animal feed was responsible for levels of melamine discovered in two brands of its formula milk in South Africa – giving credence to the possibility that the industrial chemical may be able to cross from the feed to the food chain.

The statement by Nestle, the world's largest food and nutrition company, runs against the belief held by many experts and food safety bodies that melamine ingested by animals does not pass into the food chain, as reported exclusively by Feedinfo News Service. It challenges the perception that the industrial chemical is either excreted by the animal or is diluted to such an extent that any remaining traces are practically undetectable in human food.
The announcement by Nestle South Africa comes after a batch of the company's Nido Growing up Milk for one-year-olds and a consignment of Lactogen Starter Infant Formula with iron were recalled by the KwaZulu-Natal health department earlier this week.

A Nestle statement said: "Testing led to the discovery of melamine in a number of samples of cattle feed which is predominantly used in winter, which explains the presence of melamine traces in these batches. Consequently, Nestlé has also taken steps to ensure that the cattle feed used by its South African milk producers is melamine free."

KwaZulu-Natal Health department spokesman Leon Mbangwa said the batches, which were manufactured in June and July 2008, contained melamine levels of 1.6mg/kg in the Lactogen product, while the Nido sample contained 3mg/kg.

"This is more than the internationally accepted level of 1mg/kg for foodstuffs intended for infants and young children, such as infant formula, applied by the department of health as a cut-off level," said Mr Mbangwa.

He added that information from Nestle indicated that the product was made in South Africa and contained only locally produced ingredients such as fresh milk.

"The manufacturer has determined that the source of the contamination derived from animal feed used by some of its suppliers of fresh milk," he said.

A statement from Nestle said that all its product both in South Africa and world-wide were safe and that "no Nestlé product is made from milk adulterated with melamine".

The company said that following the melamine crisis in China in mid September, it had taken total control over its milk supply chain in South Africa. Systematic melamine testing for all raw milk purchased in South Africa was immediately introduced and every batch of dairy products is now tested for melamine prior to release from the factory, the food and nutrition giant confirmed.

Instead Nestle stated it believes the contamination of its powdered milk was caused by feed given to cattle that produced the milk used as a raw material in the manufacture of the baby formula.

 

[Kathy]

article quote:

Testing led to the discovery of melamine in a number of samples of cattle feed which is predominantly used in winter, which explains the presence of melamine traces in these batches.

Now that's science, yesh!

Let's see some actual controlled study of this stuff getting from the digestive tract through the blood and into the milk.... not simplistic explanations that because it was in the cow feed it explains why it is in the milk.

Are we going to just believe theories without proof, forever?

 

[PORKER]

Remember all of those hogs and chickens that that were fed melamine pet food and dairy cows got leftover and recalled pet food from Menu foods !!!! and the gov. said it would not hurt anybody !!!!!!

 

[mrj]

Porker, do you accept the word "believes" as equal to scientific proof or verification of cause and effect in other questions?

Wouldn't you want to know the source of the melamine? And HOW and WHY it was in the feed, if that assertion is factual? AND how it got from the feed into the milk.....if it actually did so?

Given what is known about residues, time for medications to pass through the system of an animal and no longer be detectible, with testing to show parts per billions, it just might be worth a THOROUGH investigation to see if someone used the melamine actually in the milk to raise the protein levels. Isn't that what was done in China?

I'm a lot more skeptical of such an easy out for someone caught with a tainted milk product than to be able to accept what is in that story as the absolute end of the questions.

BTW, haven't multitudes of people been using melamine dishes for many years in the USA and maybe other nations as well? Have there been any reactions from use of such dishes to microwave foods to high temperatures? The stuff is very tough and can withstand such use. How do we know it is not leaching melamine into our systems? I have stopped using mine for hot foods, along with all other plastic dishes and containers., tho I believe any risk is very minimal until valid tests show otherwise.

mrj

 

[Kathy]

I remember the cats and dogs that were fed pet food that contained melamine, they were dying left and right from kidney failure because the melamine was plugging up the kidney mechanisms. The melamine nucleated cyanuric acid and other protiens in the urine. The electron microscope images of these toxic melamine nucleated particles are somewhere on the net... There are very specific mechanisms for proteins to be broken down and the amino acids reused in the building of new proteins. The melamine protein particles formed crystals that did not break apart. How could they make it to the milk from the digestive tract?

If you can find some data on this I'd like to look at it, thanks.


So far as most of the news articles I have seen go, the melamine is added to the food, milk powder etc. to give the false impression of a higher protein level. The melamine was not in the original milk.

 

[PORKER]

Might try Nestle labs .

 

[PORKER]

Melamine In China Soybeans
Fed To Organic Poultry!
By Patricia Doyle, PhD
12 -1-8

Hello Jeff - As you can see, the US has revised Melamine 'tolerable' daily intake. This is yet another travesty being perpetrated on the American public by the FDA criminals.

Are we SO indebted to China that our government would allow its people to be poisoned by Chinese food and food products? The answer is YES.

It is not just in one food item, now we see it used as fertilizer thus poisoning our crops...both organic and factory-farmed. Organic soybeans from China are contaminated with it. It is used in powdered milk thus poisoning baby formula. It is likely in other milk-based and milk-product containing products like Ensure and other medical food supplements. Just about any food on the food pyramid probably has some melamine in it now...thanks to China. The slow poisoning of an enemy would make ancient Chinese military tacticians proud.

So, people who eat more than one food item are going to be getting more than trace levels of Melamine. All products now in dairy, vegetables, bakery goods and itemsusing GLUTEN and WHEAT GLUTEN contain more Melamine. Is there any food that won't have some Melamine in it?

No wonder 'rare' kidney cancers are exploding.

Patty


MELAMINE CONTAMINATED FOOD PRODUCTS

Melamine In Chinese Soybeans Fed To Organic French Poultry

Source: AFP

Chinese soybeans contaminated with melamine withdrawn from the French market

Nearly 300 tonnes of soya meal imported from China and destined for organic poultry in Western France have been withdrawn from the market after the discovery of a melamine rate fifty times higher than the permitted standard, it was learned Friday [28 Nov 2008] from of the importing cooperative.

Christophe Courousse, communications director of the cooperative Terrena in Ancenis (Loire-Atlantique), told AFP on Friday: "One of the 3 imported batches, of 293 tonnes, had a rate of melamine of 116 mg/kg while the standard [permitted maximum level?] is of 2.5 mg. All food products made from these materials have been removed from the market in early November".

Soybean meal had been delivered, before the chemical analysis, mainly to 127 organic farmers in Pays de Loire through the Bio animal nutrition (BNA), a subsidiary of Terrena a Mervent (Vendee), which specializes in the manufacture of organic food.

"The analysis of pork and laying hens show that there is no danger to public health. Unlike dioxin, melamine does not accumulate in the body. There is no transmission in the food chain ", AFP was told by Fréderic Andre of the Veterinary Services Directorate in Vendee.

Soya cake with melamine has been used to manufacture feed for farmers in 11 departments: Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire, Mayenne, Deux-Sevres, Vendee, Calvados, Eure, Ille-et-Vilaine, Indre -et-Loire, Sarthe and Orne.

The company BNA announced its intention to sue for fraud, adding melamine to "artificially inflate the protein levels and increase the selling price of the product", said Courousse.

"The organic sector needs 18 000 tons of soybeans while France produces only 4000 tonnes," says Courousse. Imports from China were due to poor harvest in Brazil, the traditional supplier.

Controls on stored stocks have been carried out following a warning from the European Union in late October, recommending vigilance on imports from China.

Meanwhile, the Ecocert agency, in charge of the organic certification of imported soybeans, said that the Chinese exporter had committed a "fraud" which its control procedures was unable to detect. [ECOCERT is an organic certification organization, founded in France in 1991. It is based in Europe but conducts inspections in over 80 countries, making it one of the largest organic certification organizations in the world; see <<http://www.ecocert.fr/Contact.html>http://www.ecocert.fr/Contact.html>. - Mod. AS].


"Our certification covers a production method", AFP was told Jerome Viel, head of certification at Ecocert. The body, which has an office in Beijing, controls "practices" and checks the "traceability", but can not "guarantee" against "frauds" such as the ones [suspected to have been] committed by the Chinese exporter, he said.

There are many ECOCERT controls on the products themselves, but they "address mainly pesticides," he explained.

Since that case, "we decided to increase the Ecocert surveillance upon imports of organic soya cake, whatever their origin," he said.

According to Terrena, the Chinese supplier in question is Hongliang, based in Dalian (Northern China). Its export authorization in France has been suspended by the Ministry of Agriculture, said Ecocert.

For their part, European manufacturers of natural soybean products have to specify in a statement that the products, intended for human consumption such as soy milk, soy desserts, Soy steaks etc., placed on the market, are not involved in the melamine contamination problem.

Communicated by ProMED-mail reporter Susan Baekeland

******

US Revised 'Safe' Daily Intake Of Melamine

Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 Source: AP via Yahoo News [edited] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081129/ap_on_he_me/infant_formula

FDA sets melamine standard for baby formula

Less than 2 months after federal food regulators said they were unable to set a safety threshold for the industrial chemical melamine in baby formula, they announced a standard that allows for higher levels than those found in U.S.-made batches of the product.

Food and Drug Administration officials on Friday [28 Nov 2008] set a threshold of 1 part per million [=1.0 mg per kg] of melamine in formula, provided a related chemical isn't present. They insisted the formulas are safe. [An FDA interim safety/risk assessment on melamine and structural analogues, published last month, established for melamine a tolerable daily intake TDI of 0.63 mg per kg of body weight per day. - Mod. AS].

The setting of the standard comes days after The Associated Press reported that FDA tests found traces of melamine in the infant formula of one major U.S. manufacturer and cyanuric acid, a chemical relative, in the formula of a second major maker. The contaminated samples, which both measured at levels below the new standard, were analyzed several weeks ago.

The FDA had stated in early October that it was unable to set a safety contamination level for melamine in infant formula.

Dr. Stephen Sundlof, FDA's director of food safety, said Friday the agency was confident in setting the 1 part per million level for either of the chemicals alone. although there has been no new scientific studies since October that would give regulators more safety data. He had no ready explanation for why the level wasn't set earlier.

The standard is the same as the one public health officials have set in Canada and China where in September the problem of melamine in infant formula first surfaced. But it is 20 times higher than the most stringent level in Taiwan.

Sundlof said the lack of dual contamination was key because studies so far show dangerous health effects only when both chemicals are present. He emphasized that neither of the two tainted samples had both contaminants.

The agency still will not set a safety level for melamine if cyanuric acid is also present, he said.

Both the new safety level and the amount of the chemical found in U.S.-made infant formula are far below the amounts of melamine added to infant formula in China that have been blamed for killing at least three babies and making thousands ill.

"The levels were so low ... that they do not cause a health risk to infants," Sundlof said. "Parents using infant formula should continue using U.S.-manufactured infant formula. Switching away from one of these infant formulas to alternate diets or homemade formulas could result in infants not receiving the complete nutrition required for proper growth and development."

Reacting to news of the contaminated formulas, members of Congress, a national consumer group and the Illinois attorney general have demanded a national recall, something the FDA said made no sense because it had no evidence suggesting that the formula would be dangerous for babies at the levels of contamination found.

After saying it made an error in its data, the FDA on Wednesday [26 Nov 2008] produced these results: Nestle's Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron had 2 positive tests for melamine on one sample; Mead Johnson's Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron had 3 positive tests on one sample for cyanuric acid.

Separately, a 3rd major formula maker, Abbott Laboratories, told the AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula.

Those three formula makers manufacture more than 90 percent of all infant formula produced in the United States.

The FDA said it had analyzed 74 samples and was continuing to examine 13 more.

The agency had left the impression of a zero tolerance on Oct. 3 when it stated: "FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns."

The FDA and other experts said they believe the melamine contamination in U.S.-made formula had occurred during the manufacturing process, rather than intentionally. The U.S. government quietly began testing domestically produced infant formula in September, soon after problems with melamine-spiked formula surfaced in China.

Melamine can legally be used in some food packaging, and can rub off into food from there. It's also part of a cleaning solution used on some food processing equipment.

There is a gap between the concentration that the FDA detected in formula and the agency's estimate of how much melamine could contaminate food from the manufacturing process. The expected contamination from processing - 15 parts per billion - is about one-tenth the amount that the agency has detected in infant formula. FDA officials have not responded to questions from the AP this week about how that gap might be explained.

The agency said it is continuing research on animals to see the effects of ingesting both melamine and cyanuric acid.

Byline: JOAN LOWY and JUSTIN PRITCHARD

-- Communicated by: ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

[An emergency expert meeting on toxicological aspects of melamine and cyanuric acid is to be held 1-4 Dec 2008. The meeting is being convened by the WHO in collaboration with FAO. The Chinese authorities have been requested by the WHO to provide information for the meeting. For background, see http://www.who.int/foodsafety/fs_management/melamine_expertcall.pdf Mod.AS]


Patty

Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics Univ of West Indies Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board at: http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php Also my new website: http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/ Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health

 

[PORKER]

The melamine scandal will widen in 2009, and trace amounts of melamine will be found in popular meal replacement products, all of which are essentially "adult infant formula" made by the same companies that make the infant formula now found to be contaminated with trace amounts of melamine.

Manufacturers will resist recalls, and the FDA will be under increasing fire to revoke its 1ppm "safe level" announcement, replacing it with a decision based on science, not business interests.

Eventually, it will be discovered that the melamine contamination is caused by animal feed used at dairy farms. Although this new discovery may not come until 2010 - 2012, it will result in calls for widespread changes in the feed practices of dairy farms. Sales of milk products will plummet.

 

[Anonymous]

In October 2008, "Select Fresh Brown Eggs" imported to Hong Kong from the Hanwei Group in Dalian in northeastern China, were found to be contaminated with nearly twice the legal limit of melamine. York Chow, the health secretary of Hong Kong,

If malamine can be transmitted thru chickens to eggs-- I see no reason it wouldn't be able to be transmitted thru a cow into the milk...

The use of melamine as fertilizer for crops had been envisaged during the '50s and '60s because of its high nitrogen content. However, the hydrolysis reactions of melamine leading to the nitrogen mineralisation in soils are very slow, precluding a broad use of melamine as fertilizing agent.

If it will break down enough on its own to be considered as a fertilizer - altho slowly-- whats to say it won't break down much faster in the digestive tracts of certain animals--- or humans ....

Melamine is described as being "Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage. Eye, skin and respiratory irritant.
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FDA scientists explained that when melamine and cyanuric acid are absorbed into the bloodstream, they concentrate and interact in the urine-filled renal microtubules, then crystallize and form large numbers of round, yellow crystals, which in turn block and damage the renal cells that line the tubes, causing the kidneys to malfunction.

 

[PORKER]

I think the dairys on the west coast are buying feedstocks fom China as noted in the dairymen magazines.