The Chinese food contamination scandal continues to widen. The European Union (EU) is now banning imports of all Chinese baby foods that contain milk. The problem is the presence of melamine, a cheap chemical used to make plastics that looks like protein in the screening assays used to see if food products meet standards for protein content. It was added by unscrupulous Chinese pet food manufacturers a year ago, resulting in the illness and deaths of thousands of cats and dogs in the US and Canada. The thinking is that melamine combines with cyanuric acid in urine to produce lattice crystals which damage the kidney and can lead to kidney stones. The most recent episodes involve spiking watered milk with melamine and incorporating it into baby formula. Four babies have died and tens of thousands sickened within China. But the problem is not limited to China as many foods and food ingredients are exported to other countries. It is to protect against these exports that prompted the 27 nation EU to announce the ban, pending testing, of all Chinese imports containing more than 15% milk powder.
It appears that the problem may not be as limited as once thought, since the use of melamine as an adulterant is said to be an "open secret" within China. The AP reports that melamine has been found in the mile of 22 Chinese dairies. Melamine contamination of Chinese exports of candies, rice balls and yogurt are being reported. Concern has spread outside the EU:
India became the largest and most populous country to announce a ban on Chinese milk and milk products today, with the ban to remain in force for three months.
Vietnam and Nepal halted sales of all Chinese milk products and would now increase testing of such imports. Vietnam health officials warned tainted Chinese milk may have been sold in its remote, impoverished central region.
South Korea recalled products with melamine yesterday after the Korea Food and Drug Administration found tainted rice cookies made for a South Korean confectionary by one of its divisions in China.
Singapore said it had tested melamine in five more products including two Dutch Lady fruit-flavored milk products.
Kraft Foods took out a full-page advertisement in Singapore's Straits Times newspaper to say its Oreo products were safe and did not contain milk ingredients from China.
Global coffee giant Starbucks said it had started using fresh milk from a Hong Kong milk supplier in 55 of its stores in southern China, ditching its usual China supplier. (Reuters via Irish Times )
China may have an authoritarian central government but what goes on in the provinces is often beyond its control. And what goes on there was largely invisible to everyone until Chinese exports started to reach every corner of the globe in quantity. As its reputation and credibly lie in tatters, China is now discovering one of the hazards of that kind of economic reach.
And the world is discovering the hazards of Chinese exports.
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Did you see this a year ago?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article2511583.ece
I don't understand the way these people think.
Is anyone studying how people think who are making money by adulterating food and medicine? I'd call it sociopathic but it appears purely market-driven. Or do I repeat myself?
The US imports milk protein concentrate, "MPC", for use in a wide array of food products. (Whether the use of MPC in food products is even allowed by the FDA requires a different discussion... regardless, everyone is doing it these days.) Some MPC imports come from China. It's apparently quite hard to determine the source of MPC used in our food.
Does anyone know if the US is now inspecting MPC imports for melamine contamination?
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080926-163…
-----excerpt follows------
... This is just a partial list. These are the products for testing, Laboy told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Some of the products named on the list, including milk products of Anchor and Nestle, as well as M&Ms and Snickers, are already in the BFAD food section laboratory and are being prepared for testing.
Laboy said other products would be tested as inspectors were still bringing in more items from the market.
...
Also, tofu, soya, noodles
The BFAD said it planned to test a wider range of food products from China, including tofu products.
That is part of our regular functions. If anyone will encounter any problems with other China-made food products, just refer them to us and we will test them, Gutierrez said.
Secretary Duque said there was no reason, for now, for consumers to avoid all China-made food products.
He said other food products from China, except milk and milk products, were deemed safe unless there is an indication or other findings of toxic chemicals in products outside milk and milk products.
Trade secretary Peter Favila has asked the BFAD to include in its tests soya and noodle products from China which he found were being sold in stores during an inspection yesterday in the city of Manila.
The food section of the BFAD Laboratory Services Division confirmed to the Inquirer that inspectors had brought in for testing samples of China-made tofu bought from Pasay markets.
We are prioritizing (testing) milk and milk products in the meantime because we also have operational capacity limitations, Duque said. Let us first test for melamine in milk products and eventually we can refer to BFAD other food products (from China).
Revere, is there anything they can do for these kids? Ultrasonic sound on the stones or medications?
Bad deal of course but at least over there the people responsible will be given a trial and then injected. Willful misconduct causing human harm there is punishable by death...especially in the case where criminal conduct and money is involved.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/nov/05110309.html
The melamine is not only an issue for baby milk powder. It is an issue for any processed food whose value is in part based on protein. Many food products are made with ingredients that may come from China, you can not know, since the labeling won't say.
Manufacturers will do what they are allowed to do. For exporters there is little risk legally from the country they export to. The reason is it is the importer who is legally responsible for the product they buy and then distribute with the US. If the importer doesn't have it tested, it's negligence and your angst should be directed against them. The manufacturers only risk is if the importer stops buying from them, or if their own government takes action. If we won't test our own food, why should China have to test it for us.
FDA only inspects about 1.5% of imported foods, and have not tested for melamine. Not sure if they are now, except for baby milk powder.
The issued interim guidlines based on last years pet food scare suggests a toxicity limit for a 60 kg person of 3.8 mg per day for a 60 KG person (if my math is right).
In light of 9/11, one would think we would have tighter controls on food imports. Contaminated food seems a good way to reduce population of your enemy. This country should be food independent, why we are importing stuff like this amazes me.