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FDA crawls forward in melamine scandal

PORKER

Well-known member
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
FDA crawls forward in melamine scandal

Note;Pet Connection Blog is all over the Chinese protein additive scandal (there's also a diary posted by Pet Connection's ChristieKeith at Daily Kos:)

In an import alert buried deep on its website and just uncovered tonight, the FDA last Friday expanded its hold on imported foods from China - ingredients including Wheat Gluten, Rice Gluten, Rice Protein, Rice Protein Concentrate, Corn Gluten, Corn Gluten Meal, Corn By-Products, Soy Protein, Soy Gluten, Mung Bean Protein, Soy Bean Meal/Powder/Gluten/Protein Isolate, Soy Protein Powder, Wheat Gluten, Wheat Flour Gluten, Wheat Gluten, Rice Protein, Rice Gluten, Rice Protein, Corn Gluten, Milled Rice Products, Amino acids and protein hydrosylates.

They also, for the first time, published estimates of pet deaths closer to what other authoritative sources have been speculating for weeks now:

"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."

These numbers are very much in line with what we've seen in our own database of self-reported cases at PetConnection:

" * Total reports of illness or death: 14,228
* Total cats reported dead: 2,334 cats
* Total dogs reported dead: 2,249"
At long last, the FDA has seemingly done something. From USA Today:
The Food and Drug Administration is enforcing a new import alert that greatly expands its curtailment of some food ingredients imported from China, authorizing border inspectors to detain ingredients used in everything from noodles to breakfast bars.

The new restriction is likely to cause delays in the delivery of raw ingredients for the production of many commonly used products.

According to the alert notice posted on the FDA website Friday, the agency has so far taken 750 samples of wheat gluten and products made with wheat gluten and found 330 positive for melamine or melamine combined with another substance. It also found 27 positives out of 85 samples of rice protein concentrate and products made with rice protein concentrate.
Yikes. Seeing as scientists don't seem to understand why melamine caused pet deaths, and have speculated that some as yet unknown chemical transformation may be responsible, that's profoundly disturbing.

Here's a little, um, sampler from that FDA alert:
For the vegetable proteins and finished products that have been found to be contaminated, it is unknown who the actual manufacturers are, how many manufacturers there are, or where in China they may be located.

The samples of vegetable proteins that have tested positive for the presence of melamine and melamine analogs have, thus far, been traced to two Chinese firms, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd. and Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd. Records relating to the importation of these products indicate that these two firms had manufactured the ingredients in question. There is strong evidence, however, that these firms are not the actual manufacturers. Moreover, despite many weeks of investigation, it is still unknown who the actual manufacturer or manufacturers of the contaminated products imported from China are.
The FDA alert is going to require importers to provide evidence that their product is free from melamine using third party laboratory tests, which is a step in the right direction. It does nothing, of course, to bring back the dead pets nor does it provide anything approximating a solution. It's a stop-gap measure at best. I still don't understand why we would still import this stuff right now.

And finally, you knew it would be Goldy who brings up Soylent Green. ("FDA and USDA believe the likelihood of illness after eating Soylent Green would be very low.)

Double yikes.

You know, I guess we need to remember something in all this: there are strong suspicions that the melamine was added to foodstuffs on purpose for economic fraud. By importing food from China, we are essentially transporting our country back in time 100 years to the era detailed by Upton Sinclcair in "The Jungle." Pass the sausage.

{Between the hog and chicken feed and calf milk replacer the farmer and ranchers has been duped into cheap feed ingredients from outside our borders that can kill you and your livestock and pets. All in the name of greed .}
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Makes you ill just thinking that we eat this imported crap from China ;the FDA last Friday expanded its hold on imported foods from China - ingredients including Wheat Gluten, Rice Gluten, Rice Protein, Rice Protein Concentrate, Corn Gluten, Corn Gluten Meal, Corn By-Products, Soy Protein, Soy Gluten, Mung Bean Protein, Soy Bean Meal/Powder/Gluten/Protein Isolate, Soy Protein Powder, Wheat Gluten, Wheat Flour Gluten, Wheat Gluten, Rice Protein, Rice Gluten, Rice Protein, Corn Gluten, Milled Rice Products, Amino acids and protein hydrosylates.
 

penzall

New member

PORKER

Well-known member
I think the LAST line in the Story SAYS it ALL ,The pork and pork products from these animals will be destroyed !!!!!!!!!!

The broilers should be found and taken off the market!!!! Hell yes ,if it kills dogs and cats ,their will be plenty of sick childern,mothers fathers and grandparents .I think you should avoid Tyson fed animals as reported by Robin the other day that the feed mill is a Tyson plant.
 

Econ101

Well-known member
So let us review what we have learned our "Best Science" USDA/FDA is giving us:

1. If you spike your feed and feed additives with harmful substances, the current USDA/FDA structure was not able to recognize it until after the feedstuff has been entrenched in the diet of animals used for food or for pets. They were only able to see the fraud when the symptoms were too late to protect the public.

2. If you are a huge supplier of animals for food in the U.S., you did not have the capability to find out what is turning out to be a common place fraud by Chinese companies. You fed the feed to your animals without recognizing the fraud because you used the same "sound science" tests for analyzing your feed. Giant agribusiness is not smart enough to not be fooled.

3. If you did feed contaminated feed to your food animals, the best thing to do is to quickly slaughter them and sell them to consumers so you don't get caught holding the bag. Our regulatory agencies will not hold you accountable for your ignorance in the market place and your inability to provide a safe food product.

4. The USDA/FDA claims to oversee the "safest food supply" in the world, but really doesn't have a clue. Their definition of "sound science" is just as clueless.

5. There is no accountability in our food supply system. This allows there to be no economic retribution to those who make major mistakes when selling food items. We have the same managers doing the same thing. The courts sanction this system in part because they look at the costs to consumers and have bought the argument that lower prices are all that matters and keeping food cheap, albeit not necessarily safe, is the social goal.




Please, if you have more points, copy the above points and add your own.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
FDA: the “Faith-based Dining Administration”
by Goldy, 05/08/2007, 2:24 PM

“FDA and USDA believe the likelihood of illness after eating such pork is extremely low.”
– USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

“We have no reason to believe that any of those are currently in the human food supply as a direct ingredient.”
– USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

“We have no reason to believe that anything other than the rice protein concentrate or the wheat gluten have been a problem in the United States recently.”
– USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

“But overall, we believe the risk to be extremely low to humans.”
– USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

“We believe that the likelihood of illness from such exposure is extremely low.”
– USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007

“One of the reasons we believe that this is very low in humans is due to the dilution effect.”
– USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007

“We believe the situation in the poultry is very much like that for the swine.”
– USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007

“We do not believe that there is any significant threat of human illness from consuming poultry.”
– USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007

“We believe the likelihood of illness to humans, including infants, is extremely small.”
– USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007

“We believe the likelihood of a human illness is very remote.”
– USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007

“We have no reason to believe those animals are any risk to the public.”
– USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007


Reprinted Food Blog below

“There’s no tolerance for any of these compounds, either melamine or cyanuric acid. […] We just don’t know when we get these mixtures together. So there is no, really no acceptable level.”
– USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

I’m not a very spiritual person, but I’m having a crisis of faith.

Twice a week I sit in on the FDA’s media teleconference regarding our growing food safety crisis, and twice a week I come away struck by the difference between what officials believe and what they actually know. As a born agnostic and a fan of science, I can fully appreciate the FDA’s reluctance to express absolute certainty. But as a devoted father and pet owner, I can’t help but find their reassurances less than reassuring.

First we were told that none of the adulterated wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate had made its way into the human food supply, and then we were informed that a mere 6,000 hogs had eaten feed contaminated by “salvaged” pet food. Next it was chickens. 3 million of them. Slaughtered, butchered and eaten by unsuspecting Americans.

Then 20 million more chickens, and today another 50,000 hogs… not to mention the God-knows-how-many fish in the US and Canada raised on farms now known to have received Canadian fish meal manufactured from contaminated Chinese flours.

Still… not to worry, we are told, because large manufacturers are “unlikely to have exposed their animals to large amounts of the tainted pet products.”

Uh-oh. Qualified statements like that set off alarm bells, and every bell this scandal has rung thus far has been answered a few days later with another revelation. The practice of selling salvaged pet food for livestock feed is more widespread than previously acknowledged, encompassing nearly the entire US pet food manufacturing industry. Given what we know of these practices, and the nature of the livestock and feed industries, it is reasonable to speculate that hundreds of millions of U.S.-grown hogs, chickens and fish have been contaminated, dating back to November or July of 2006, or perhaps even further.

But not to worry, we are told, for even that only represents a small percentage of the 9 billion chickens raised in the U.S. annually, a number the FDA bizarrely considers to be “a small part of [our] overall diet.” Affected hogs and chickens “appear to be healthy.” Even if the boneless breast in your freezer does contain melamine, it’s only a tiny amount. And besides, we are told, “we have no reason to believe” this poses a risk to human health.

Uh-huh.

I know I sometimes come off as a tad alarmist, but before you dismiss my skepticism lets first review what we know versus what we believe.

What we know:

Tainted pet food has killed or sickened tens of thousands of cats and dogs, some dropping dead within a meal or two of first ingesting melamine and related compounds such as cyanuric acid.
Autopsies have discovered “plasticized” cat kidneys, clogged with crystals comprised of equal parts melamine and cyanuric acid.
Laboratory tests have have reproduced the formation of these crystals in a test tube by mixing melamine and cyanuric acid in the presence of urine.
Tainted pet food containing melamine and cyanuric acid was “salvaged,” and sold as livestock feed, contaminating untold millions of hogs and chickens.
About three million chickens and several hundred hogs are known to have been slaughtered, butchered and presumably eaten. At least another 20 million chickens are known to have consumed contaminated feed.
What we believe:

Tainted meat poses little risk to human health.
I would love to join my friends in the legacy media in reporting that our food supply is safe. I love food. I eat it every day. But I’m having trouble taking that leap of faith, not simply because of what we know, but because of what we don’t know. For example, we have no idea if melamine/cyanuric acid crystals bio-accumulate in human kidneys over time, and we’re not even sure exactly how long or how widely these toxins have contaminated our food supply.

And… despite USDA/FDA’s recent assurance that contaminated meat is safe to eat, this “most extreme risk assessment scenario” was conducted without ever bothering to test melamine and cyanuric acid levels in the meat of contaminated hogs and chickens.

At least, that’s what they told me. FDA spokesperson Julie Zawisza explained that “identifying these compounds in high protein environments (eg, muscle/tissue) is not that simple” and that they “are still working on a valid test.”

Fair enough. So I asked Midwest Labs, a widely respected testing facility, if they could test “a pork chop or piece of chicken” as reliably as they could test, say, a can of dog food. Their response?

“We can certainly test a food item or a pet food item for melamine. Their is a bit of prep work involved in testing a food sample for melamine, but this is certainly not a problem. Testing muscle tissue will only give a different consistency to the prepped sample. Neither should be a problem.”

When USDA/FDA released contaminated animals from quarantine, and approved them for market, they did so without ever directly testing the meat, and with no restriction on the sale or consumption of organs such as liver or kidney, where the melamine/cyanuric acid crystals are known to accumulate… organ meat that millions of Americans do consume on a regular basis, sometimes knowingly.

USDA/FDA say they believe the melamine level in meat would be very low, but they haven’t bothered to test it. They say they believe melamine is nontoxic to humans, but then, a few months ago we believed it was nontoxic to dogs and cats too. They say they believe that there have been no human health problems due to eating tainted pork and chicken, but admit that the Centers for Disease Control has “limited ability to detect subtle problems due to melamine and melamine-related compounds.”

And while USDA/FDA have focused their efforts almost entirely on inspecting imports of vegetable protein concentrates, and on tracking contaminated product through the animal and human food supply, the import of processed foods, meat and farmed seafood products from China has continued unchecked and unabated, despite the obvious potential of contamination within China’s own, largely unregulated, agriculture and food industries.

According to recent studies, 81-percent of America’s seafood is imported, and about 40-percent of that is farmed. China is the world’s aquaculture leader, accounting for about 70-percent of global production. It is also a major U.S. supplier of farm-raised shrimp, catfish, tilapia, carp, clams, eel and other aquaculture products.

We now know that it is common practice in China to spike the nitrogen level of livestock feed by adulterating the product with both scrap melamine and scrap cyanuric acid. And it has also been widely reported that this contaminated feed is routinely used in China’s burgeoning aquaculture industry.

The chemical producers said it was common knowledge that for years cyanuric acid had been used in animal and fish feed. […] “Cyanuric acid scrap can be added to animal feed,” says Yu Luwei, general manager of Juancheng Ouya Chemical Company in Shandong Province. “I sell it to fish meal manufacturers and fish farmers. It can also be added to feed for other animals.”

Fish physiology can leave them particularly prone to bio-accumulating certain contaminants, and the nature of common aquaculture practices tends to exacerbate the problem. Farmed seafood raised on a steady diet of contaminated feed would surely retain some of the toxins in its flesh. But as far as we know, no imported, Chinese aquaculture products have yet been tested.

The fact is, due to greed, negligence and uncontrolled Chinese capitalism our food supply has been widely contaminated by melamine and related compounds, and USDA, FDA, CDC and other government agencies have no idea what the long term human health effects might be. Throughout this unfolding crisis, the regulatory agencies tasked with assuring the safety and purity of our food supply have consistently downplayed the risk to humans — a somewhat understandable attitude considering Chinese and American consumers have apparently been eating melamine-tainted food for months, if not years, with no known epidemiological impact. But given the harm to our pets, and the fact that kidney damage is cumulative and can remain asymptomatic until renal function is mostly lost, I wonder how many Americans would be willing to accept on blind faith USDA/FDA’s reassurances that products containing “low” levels of melamine are perfectly safe to feed to our children?
 

PORKER

Well-known member
China’s culture of corruption, that is, getting more for less, playing tricky business games, and substituting low quality ingredients and then selling the product at top dollar to the unsuspecting customers, drags down everything good the current communist government of China proclaims.

True ,Or FALSE ,everything good the current communist government of China proclaims,NOT.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Pet Food Recall: Wheat Gluten & Rice Protein Concentrate 'Mislabeled'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Jeff Freeland
May 10, 2007

Pet food recall confusion expands with the claim that wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate was mislabeled. A new report notes that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that the contaminated wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China - associated with the deaths of at least 16 dogs and cats and the recall of hundreds of dog and cat food brands—was mislabeled and was really wheat flour contaminated with melamine and melamine-related products.


Pet Food Recall: Wheat Gluten & Rice Protein Concentrate 'Mislabeled'

That makes the recall even more frightening and confusing. The AVMA reports that David Acheson, M.D., assistant commissioner for food protection, Office of the Commissioner at the FDA, said that investigators believe that melamine, which is high in nitrogen, was added to the wheat flour.

***

As a result, protein level test results on the flour were consistent with those of wheat gluten. This discovery does not change recent pet food recalls or livestock restrictions, but rather just expands the understanding of the ongoing pet food and livestock feed contamination and investigation.

The FDA also announced today that a portion of the mislabeled wheat flour was sent to a Canadian manufacturer by U.S.-based ChemNutra, Inc., and used to make a product that was then imported back into the United States and fed to fish on an undetermined number of fish farms. The FDA hasn't yet released the identity of the fish farms or the type or number of fish involved, but has issued a hold on the fish.

***

In addition, the FDA made these announcements concerning the ongoing investigation: The FDA has issued a hold on 50,000 swine at three facilities in Illinois due to concerns that the animals had consumed contaminated livestock feed.

The FDA has also released to inspection and possible slaughter 10 million previously restricted broiler chickens. Kenneth Petersen, D.V.M., M.P.H., assistant administrator for field operations, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, said that the chicken feed consumed by the released broilers tested negative for melamine. He went on to explain that, for birds and swine that had consumed contaminated feed, an animal exposure assessment will be conducted.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
57 Canadian fish hatcheries, fish farms got tainted feed
Last Updated: Friday, May 11, 2007 | 8:03 AM PT
CBC News
Feed contaminated with an industrial chemical was distributed to 57 fish hatcheries and fish farms in Canada, according to the federal food watchdog.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed Friday that Vancouver-based Skretting Canada supplied the fish feed, tainted with the same contaminated Chinese wheat flour linked to the recent poisonings of cats and dogs in Canada and the United States.

Canada's food watchdog says 57 fish hatcheries and fish farms bought melamine-contaminated food pellets.
(CBC) CFIA officials said it's unlikely the contamination would spread to the human food supply since the feed was given to young fish.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Skretting distributes its fish feed to 198 U.S. companies — 60 of which are estimated to have received the tainted product. FDA officials noted two of the American customers produce fish for human consumption.

CFIA is holding at the border and testing all shipments from China of wheat, rice, soy and corn gluten and protein concentrates.

Earlier this week, FDA officials assured consumers that pork, chicken and egg products from animals that were given feed tainted with melamine were safe to eat. The U.S. agency said tests on the feed showed low levels of the industrial chemical, which falsely boosts nutrient content.

Continue Article

Food safety concerns grew after U.S. officials found some small manufacturing plants had been incorporating pet food into their animal feed before tests showed the pet food was contaminated.

Melamine was found in more than 100 brands of contaminated pet food that were recalled from the marketplace in Canada and the U.S. in mid-March. The FDA has fielded about 17,000 consumer calls about related pet illnesses.

With files from the Associated Press and the Canadian Press


Yes , www.scoringcontainers.com would have keep track og the ingredients.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
How Two Innocuous Compounds Combined to Kill Pets

Melamine is an extremely small molecule, and most of it is absorbed through the intestinal tract before it is digested. It circulates in the bloodstream until it gets to the kidneys, where it slips easily into the fluid that eventually becomes urine. Melamine can also enter other organs. That is how it could have ended up in the tissue of farm animals that ate scraps of melamine-laced pet food -- as apparently was the case in 2.7 million chickens and 345 pigs slaughtered and consumed in recent months.

(Late last week, the federal government identified another 20 million chickens that had eaten tainted feed and took steps to keep them off the market.)


Transcript
Science and Medicine: Melamine
Washington Post staff writer David Brown and Robert Poppenga, a veterinary toxicologiest, were online to discuss the chemical culprit behind the pet food scare.


Special Report
Pet Food Recall


As a practical matter, though, only a small amount of melamine would ever end up in Buffalo wings or pulled pork. Melamine's chemical structure makes it water-soluble, and it doesn't accumulate in fat. After an oral dose of melamine, more than half is out of the bloodstream and into the urine in three hours.

The purpose of urine is to concentrate water-soluble waste products and to keep them dissolved. But water's dissolving power has its limits. Melamine and other chemicals can reach concentrations that exceed those limits. When the water can't hold any more, the chemical substance begins to form crystals.

Studies done decades ago found that rats fed melamine for two years developed stones in their urine, which led to bladder cancer in some. When rats were fed in one serving a large amount of melamine -- the equivalent of a 150-pound person eating a pound -- about half died.

At low doses, however, melamine is nontoxic. In fact, microcapsules and chains made of melamine have been used experimentally in animals as vehicles for delivering long-acting drugs.

Veterinarians investigating the mysterious pet deaths realized that most of the animals died of kidney failure and had kidney stones containing melamine. Although little is known about melamine toxicity in cats and dogs, it seems unlikely, based on the rat studies, that the pets could have consumed fatal amounts of the chemical.

Last month, however, toxicologists at the University of Guelph in Ontario detected another compound in the stones from cats suffering kidney failure -- cyanuric acid. Initially, the ratio was thought to be about two parts melamine to one part cyanuric acid. More recent and more precise measurements suggest an even split.

Ten days ago, Guelph scientists Brent Hoff and Grant Maxie combined melamine and cyanuric acid in a sample of cat urine. They produced crystals that, when examined for their chemical and physical properties, were virtually identical to the stones taken from the ill or dead cats.

The crystals are a lattice of six molecules -- three of melamine and three of cyanuric acid -- held together by weak links called hydrogen bonds.

When melamine is added to water that contains cyanuric acid, the reaction clouds the solution. It's that reaction -- and the degree of cloudiness -- that tells pool maintenance workers how much cyanuric acid is in the water, and whether more is needed. When the reaction occurs in a pet's kidneys, however, it can have altogether different and deadly effects.

So how might a plastic and a pool chemical (and their cousins, ammeline and ammelide) have gotten into pet food?

Nobody knows.

But one theory is that they were leftovers from a chemical company's production of something else. In an act of fraud that substituted cheap scrap for more expensive protein, someone put the compounds into the wheat gluten, thinking they would never be discovered and never cause a problem.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
FDA Reminds Food & Feed Manufacturers Of Legal Responsibilities

The following letter was issued to registered food and feed manufacturers by the FDA via the registration database email notification system on May 7, 2007. The letter was also posted on FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition's website at the following link: cfsan.fda.gov

May 4, 2007

Dear Food Manufacturers:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking this opportunity to remind food manufacturers of their legal responsibility to ensure that all ingredients used in their products are safe for human consumption.

In view of the recent recalls of various pet foods due to the presence of wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate contaminated with melamine, and information revealing that some of this contaminated pet food may have been mixed with feed for pigs and poultry meant for human consumption, manufacturers are encouraged to make sure they have procedures in place that ensure the safety of the ingredients in their products, as well as the safety of the packaging and processing supplies they use. Manufacturers should also verify that their suppliers have such procedures in place. Advice on how to ensure that food ingredients and food products are safe for human consumption can be found at cfsan.fda.gov.Link http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/alert.html

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/frrecord.html for recordkeeping on the FDA 2002 Bioterrorism law.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Source:
Clark, R. 1966. Melamine crystalluria in sheep. Journal South African Veterinary Medical Assoc., 1966, Vol. 37, pp. 349-351.
A record from the CAB Abstracts Archive Database published by CABI, Wallingford, UK.
CAB Record Number: 19671407708
Melamine crystalluria in sheep
The toxic effects of melamine given directly or in the feed to merino wethers were studied. A single dose of 100 g increased urea in blood from 28 to 315 mg per 100 ml for a period of 11 days. There was complete loss of appetite and excretion of urine ceased on the tenth day. When the sheep was examined post mortem on the eleventh day the tubules of the kidney were packed with crystals. Nephrosis and erosive abomasitis were seen also. Daily doses of 50 and 25 g killed the sheep after 7 and 9 days, respectively. In those sheep the blood urea was high just before death and post mortem crystals in the kidney tubules, nephrosis, haemorrhagic cystitis and acute typhlitis were seen. The dose of 50 g also caused ulcers in the abomasum. With 10 g daily one sheep did not die but 2 did so after 16 and 31 days. The 2 sheep which died lost appetite and stopped urinating 3 days before death and urea and creatinine in blood then increased sharply. There were crystals in the kidneys and severe oedema of the lungs.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Ongoing recall investigation unraveling the facts
Congress holds another hearing, considers legislation relevant to safety of pet food
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Months after the recalls of pet food began in mid-March, developments continued to unfold in response to the adulteration of ingredients from China.

One of the revelations was that the ingredients in question were not wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate, as the labels indicated. Both of the ingredients were actually wheat flour containing melamine and cyanuric acid.

Another revelation was that some of the ingredients went into fish food for industrial aquaculture. The Food and Drug Administration previously traced pet food with the ingredients to hog and poultry operations. The Department of Agriculture released the hogs and poultry for processing after determining meat from the animals posed little risk to human health.

By mid-May, Congress already had held three hearings relevant to the situation. The FDA's new assistant commissioner for food protection, David Acheson, MD, testified about the investigation during a May 9 hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture.

On the same day, the Senate passed legislation that included provisions regarding the safety of pet food. In addition, the House and Senate started considering the Human and Pet Food Safety Act of 2007.

The investigation of ingredients containing melamine and cyanuric acid continued in China and the United States. The Chinese facilities that manufactured the ingredients had ceased operations and dismantled equipment, stymieing FDA inspectors. The FDA was detaining vegetable protein products arriving from China and sampling products that had reached U.S. companies.

Recent developments
At a May 8 press conference, Dr. Acheson made a surprising announcement—adulteration is not the only problem with the ingredients from China. They were also mislabeled. The products that were labeled and exported to the United States as wheat gluten and concentrated rice protein were, in fact, found to be wheat flour during the ongoing trace back and trace forward of the original shipments.

Wheat gluten is a component of wheat flour. Dr. Acheson said that, although speculative, there is a plausible reason for the adulteration and mislabeling. Processing flour from whole wheat is simpler than extracting the gluten from wheat flour. Wheat flour contains some ground gluten, he said, but the total protein content of flour is low. The addition of melamine, which is high in nitrogen, could increase the protein reading during testing so that it was consistent with that of wheat gluten.

Cyanuric acid is similar to melamine in that both of the compounds include the triazine structure—consisting of three carbon atoms, three hydrogen atoms, and three nitrogen atoms. The compounds can react to form crystals, which might do damage to the kidneys of animals.

Dr. Acheson said the mislabeling of the wheat flour did not change the findings relative to adulteration with melamine and cyanuric acid, or affect the pet food recalls or the risk assessments involving hogs and poultry unknowingly fed the adulterated product.

"FDA considers this product to be mislabeled, and we're considering possible enforcement actions," Dr. Acheson said.

Dr. Acheson also disclosed that authorities learned that a portion of the mislabeled wheat gluten from China was sent to Canada by U.S.-based ChemNutra Inc. for use in manufacturing fish feed. This product was then imported into the United States for the aquaculture industry. The FDA had issued a hold on the fish and was visiting establishments that received the fish feed, but the agency believes there is no human health risk from consuming them.

Congressional hearing
Congress continues to hold hearings about the recall of pet food. On May 9, witnesses from the FDA and the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service testified before the House Committee on Agriculture.

Dr. Acheson testified in part about his position as the first assistant commissioner for food protection. He had been director of the FDA Office of Food Defense, Communication, and Emergency Response.

Dr. Acheson's new job includes developing an agency-wide strategic plan for food safety. He said the FDA faces challenges such as the increased globalization of the food supply, outdated infrastructure relative to increasing complexities of food safety, and difficulties with tracking food rapidly when a problem arises.

"The melamine case we're discussing today illustrates many of these challenges we face—and highlights the need for new scientific and technological approaches to advance food protection," Dr. Acheson said.

The FDA is reviewing food protection in the areas of prevention, intervention, and response. The agency will look at enhancing prevention through stronger science, risk-based controls, and leverage with partners. The FDA will try to improve intervention by applying modern technology to establish a comprehensive food information system. The agency will attempt to enhance response by improving product tracking and laboratory surge capacity.

Dr. Acheson testified that the future of food safety will require different or additional resources. In response to congressional representatives' questions, he said the FDA will never have the resources to inspect all food imports or foreign manufacturers. The agency focuses on risk-based import inspections and on working with other countries to maintain standards for food safety acceptable to the United States.

Dr. Kenneth Petersen, FSIS assistant administrator for field operations, testified that the USDA operates under an equivalence system for imports. Countries must prove they meet U.S. standards for food safety before they can export meat or poultry products to the United States. China does not export meat or poultry products to the United States, though China is eligible to export cooked poultry to this country. China does export fish to this country.

More than one representative spoke in favor of implementing country-of-origin labeling so consumers can discern the source of foods. Dr. Acheson noted that domestically produced foods can cause illness, too.

Representatives also expressed concern that the FDA might not have sufficient authority over imports. In response to questions, Dr. Acheson said the agency does not have the authority to ban an import without evidence of a specific problem.

Federal legislation
Congress has been crafting legislation to ensure the safety of pet food. On May 9, the Senate passed a bill to amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that included an amendment regarding pet food.

"What we have seen happen over the last several months is a clear indication that our food safety system—as good as it may be—needs to be a lot better," said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois when he introduced the amendment, which the AVMA helped draft.

The amendment would require the Department of Health and Human Services to establish the following:

processing and ingredient standards for pet foods, along with updates to labeling standards
a surveillance system to identify adulteration of pet food and outbreaks of illness in association with pet food
a notification network to inform veterinarians during any recall
an Adulterated Food Registry that would allow HHS to issue alerts for foods following multiple cases of adulteration or outbreaks of illness


The amendment would require an annual report to detail the scope of food imports subject to FDA regulation, the number of FDA inspectors and inspections for food imports, and the findings of these inspections—with information about any enforcement actions.

At press time, the House had not drafted a companion bill. Some provisions of the amendment reappear in separate legislation, the Human and Pet Food Safety Act of 2007, which Sen. Durbin and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut introduced in their respective houses of Congress.

The act also would require anyone who has reason to believe that food is unsafe to immediately notify HHS, with civil penalties for failure to notify. Furthermore, the act would grant HHS the authority to order a mandatory recall.
Finally, the act would require HHS to certify that the food safety programs of a foreign government or establishment are at least equivalent to U.S. programs before the government or establishment would be able to export food to the United States.

–KATIE BURNS; SUSAN KAHLER CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT
 

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Food safety agency asked to explain proposed analyst cut

By Anna Edney CongressDaily June 19, 2007

House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders want the Food and Drug Administration to answer for a proposal to cut 196 food safety analysts at a time when contaminated spinach, peanut butter and pet food have led to high-profile recalls and deaths.
Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., wrote FDA Friday that they were shocked to learn the agency planned to cut microbiologists, chemists and engineers at laboratories around the country that test food samples.
"This number represents 37 percent of the total number of lab analysts currently working in the Office of Regulatory Affairs laboratories," the letter states. "This slashing of analysts comes after an already 24 percent reduction in lab analysts between 2003 and 2007. To say the least, these numbers are deeply disturbing."
FDA spokesman Doug Arbesfeld said the agency does not plan to cut any positions, though he did say it could decide, for example, if its goal would be better served with more inspectors and fewer analysts.
FDA has been under fire for inspecting a small percentage of imported food. Arbesfeld stressed the agency's ability to analyze samples would not suffer.
The Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee is probing FDA's ability to secure the safety of the food supply, and is considering issuing subpoenas to compel FDA staff to testify before the subcommittee if lawmakers do not get the information they are looking for in the next two weeks, a committee aide said.
Dingell, Stupak, Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Oversight and Investigations ranking member Edward Whitfield, R-Ky., demanded in February that FDA suspend plans to close seven of its 13 labs around the country that test food samples from inspections and analyze samples during food safety crises.
The letter asked FDA for documents regarding the closures, which the agency sent, including one titled "New Organization Staffing" from December that outlined the cuts in analyst positions.
When news came out in February that FDA might close some labs, officials said most lab staff would be transferred to remaining labs.
Arbesfeld said that still is the plan under the proposal, but the agency does expect some people to decide not to move and some positions to be switched. The lab closings affect 250 positions. Arbesfeld said he did not know if FDA staff had spoken to Energy and Commerce leaders since the letter was sent Friday.
The Association of Public Health Laboratories met with FDA in April; a spokeswoman said association leaders were convinced FDA will be able to handle the workload under the new organization plan.
A former top FDA official blamed Congress for the need to consolidate the labs.
"The budget cuts [that] FDA's undergone in recent years has caused them to do fewer inspections, and the equipment they have in these labs aren't used because they don't have the people," said William Hubbard, former associate FDA policy commissioner.
FDA has lost 1,000 employees over the last decade because of inadequate appropriations, Hubbard said. The agency has gained positions from prescription drug user fees, but the funding is only used in FDA's drug center and mainly for new drug review.
Dean Clive, a principal investigator at the Food Safety Lab at the University of California, Davis, also blamed Congress for not giving FDA enough money for all it expects the agency to do. Clive has served as a food safety consultant to FDA.
"Congress responds to whatever they've read that morning in the newspaper, and they have very unrealistic expectations," Clive said.
 
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