Brace yourselves - yet another recall to come

[mtoy]

Petconnection says another manufacturer will be recalling their product:
http://tinyurl.com/2cf6m3

sick sick sick...

[Jespah]

Here's the story on the wheat flour - not gluten as of this morning.

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- The manager of the Chinese company suspected of selling tainted wheat flour to the United States has been detained for nearly two weeks outside Beijing, CNN has learned.

Tian Feng is the manager of Binzhou Futian Biology Technology, which U.S. pet food distributors have identified as the company that sold them wheat flour -- mislabeled as wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate -- containing melamine and related products.

Tian's company was shut by local police on April 25, the day he was detained. "I didn't do anything wrong," Tian said in an interview with CNN from the detention center in Binzhou in China's eastern Shandong Province.

Dressed in a white T-shirt and orange prison vest, Tian said, "I don't know about melamine. I don't even know what this melamine is. I have never heard of anyone using it."

Under Chinese law, police can hold Tian for 30 days while the investigation continues. After that, he must be tried or released.

In addition to being used in pet food, the tainted flour also made its way into feed for some 20 million poultry, thousands of hogs, and an unknown number of farmed fish, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday.

The FDA has said the threat to humans is remote.

While the FDA has received reports of more than 4,000 pet deaths related to the recall, it has confirmed the deaths of 17 cats and dogs. Agency officials have said they do not plan to investigate the thousands of reports of deaths they have received allegedly caused by the tainted food products.

U.S. food authorities suspect melamine and cyuranic acid -- a chemical used in swimming pools -- were mixed into the flour because the nitrogen-rich compounds would make it appear that the flour contained more protein than it really did.

Researchers say that when melamine is combined with cyuranic acid, crystals can form in the kidneys, leading to organ failure.

Original reports cited tainted rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten as the suspected compounds. But authorities said Tuesday that tests have shown simple wheat flour was the culprit.

Dr. David Acheson, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's assistant commissioner for food protection, said Tuesday that officials suspect the Chinese company substituted wheat flour for wheat gluten and rice-protein concentrate, then attempted to make them appear to be the protein-rich substances by adulterating them.

Melamine and related compounds each contain high levels of nitrogen. Some tests for protein, which is also rich in nitrogen, test only for the nitrogen.

The Chinese government banned the use of melamine as a food additive only last month.

[corgimom]

"Researchers say that when melamine is combined with cyuranic acid, crystals can form in the kidneys, leading to organ failure."

Thanks for posting the article - I find this statement quite interesting since my one cat became ill right when the Natural Balance Green Pea and Venison was recalled and it turned out he had crystals in his urine - his blood work showed his kidneys to be okay. Still he had the symtoms of vomiting and loss of appetite which obviously led me to have him thoroughly checked considering he was eating that food - makes me wonder if there was any connection.

[Jespah]

Here's another update, it's good to see that China is finally reacting to this and not denying it.

SHANGHAI, China – China launched a food and drug safety crackdown on Wednesday, following an announcement that authorities detained managers from two companies linked to contaminated pet food that killed dogs and cats in North America.

State media, meanwhile, reported the country's disgraced former top drug regulator would go on trial this month on charges of taking bribes to approve untested medicine.

The ongoing revelations have shed a harsh light on China's notorious food and drug safety woes, sparking fears that exported products could contaminate food supplies abroad.

Few details were given about the detentions, which follow a U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation sparked by the pet deaths and a recall of nearly 100 brands of pet food made with the tainted ingredients.

The FDA discovered melamine, a chemical used in plastics, fertilizers and flame retardants, in the pet food and traced the contaminated foodstuff to the Chinese companies.

In a notice on its Web site, China's government body responsible for overseeing food safety said investigators had focused on individuals at two companies blamed for the melamine tainting, and said local police had already brought charges. It did not name those under investigation or give other details.

"Relevant departments will deal strictly with the lawbreaking companies and those responsible according to the results of the investigation," the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on its Web site.

China's State Council, or Cabinet, said the nationwide crackdown would compel companies to adopt "standards used in food-importing countries ... and test products which will be used to make animal feed or food for humans."

The government must "strengthen its investigations into protein products, especially melamine," the notice said.

That appeared to reflect concern over the impact of the scandals on China's exports of seafood, food additives and other such products, which compete strongly on price but which have been repeatedly singled out for contamination or low quality.

In one such recent case, Mississippi on Tuesday banned catfish from China after tests found ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin, antibiotics that are banned for use in the United States.

Tainted drugs are also a serious problem. Recent reports have accused a Chinese company of selling diethylene glycol, a chemical cousin of antifreeze, that ended up in medicine that killed at least 51 people in Panama.

Zheng Xiaoyu, the former director of the State Food and Drug Administration, is accused of taking up to $780,000 in bribes to approve untested medicines, including an antibiotic that killed at least 10 patients.

Zheng was fired in 2005 and the official Xinhua News Agency said his trial will be held in mid-May.

The detained managers were identified as having worked for Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd. and Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd., both listed as having exported melamine-spiked rice protein and wheat gluten to the U.S.

U.S. inspectors said the tainted gluten was used to make pet food and caused the deaths of an unknown number of dogs and cats through liver failure.

Calls to office numbers at the companies rang unanswered on Wednesday. The mobile phones of managers at the companies were shut off.

A woman surnamed Cao at the Binzhou police in Shandong province said she could not comment because of the confidential nature of the case. Police on the provincial, city and county level in Jiangsu province where Anying Biologic is located said they had no information about the case.

The general administration statement said the companies had added melamine to the wheat gluten and rice protein in a bid to meet the contractual demand for the amount of protein in the products. It said doing so was against regulations.

However, the statement indicated the companies broke the law only when they mislabelled the exported products to avoid inspection.

The general administration said it ordered stepped-up inspections in the wake of its investigation, but that checks on 173 exporters in 11 provinces and cities had not turned up additional signs of melamine tainting after tests on 399 samples.

Additional checks for melamine were ordered on related products, such as processed meats and milk powder, but no contamination was found, it said.

The administration said it passed on those results to the FDA, officials from which were in China last week to meet government officials and visit companies. No details of the trip have been released, and it is not known if they are still in China.

"The U.S. side said it hoped for closer cooperation with the Chinese side in the area of boosting animal food safety," the notice said.

Melamine has no nutritional value but because it is nitrogen rich, it raises the nitrogen level of feed. That makes it appear to be higher in protein and, therefore, garnering a better price for the makers of feed for stock animals such as pigs, chickens, and fish, as well as companies that make prepared foods for household pets such as cats and dogs.

It is illegal to add melamine to food or animal feed in the U.S., although makers of the chemical and feed companies told The Associated Press last week the chemical was widely added to feed in China. They said they knew of no rules against the practice and were not aware that melamine could be harmful.

Xuzhou Anying managers have said they have no idea how the melamine got into the gluten, which they say was sourced from other firms and sold to a third company that exported it to the U.S.

However, suspicions were raised when the company was found to have posted an advertisement on the Web site of an online market in March seeking to buy melamine.

U.S. officials say they don't believe melamine to be harmful to humans, but say they have too little data to determine how it reacts with other substances.

[Fluffypants]

However, suspicions were raised when the company was found to have posted an advertisement on the Web site of an online market in March seeking to buy melamine.


Yeah - I could see how that would raise some eyebrows!:ARG:

[corgimom]

Here is an interesting article below - the link was posted on Itchmo

http://www.animalwellnessmagazine.com/art/aV93_62.htm

[dcole]

Linda,

That was interesting. I had actually bought that magazine last week when shopping at the market, and kind of skimmed over that article. I just now re-read it and found that statement by Dr. Fox most interesting. I've been on his webpage before and know that he believes the contamination is due to geneticaly-modifed wheat, but I believe this is the first time that I've ever seen anyone state that melamine is not a "cheap" filler - that it would actually cost more that the wheat itself. Very interesting indeed.:SHOCKED: