Melamine found in human food, FDA suspends media briefings, nothing to see here, move along

Late last night, I saw a story come across my news alert service, stating that tests for antibiotic residues in imported Chinese catfish had come back negative. I was going to glance at it anyway, but what made me glance at it extra-hard was the fact that it had come in under an alert for news stories on melamine.

The headline just said that FDA labs in Denver had found that the fish, imported for human consumption from China, had tested all-clear on a couple of antibiotics that are not approved for use in aquaculture in the U.S., and which have been of concern in fish imported from China.

And that's how the story led, too. And then, just in passing, they dropped this little bomb:

One sample of catfish, however, did show a positive test for melamine. The level of material, however, does not pose any human health hazards, according to DHHS.

Melamine is a chemical used in fertilizers in Asia and has recently been detected in wheat gluten used in the making of some pet foods distributed in the United States.

U.S. inspectors said the tainted gluten used in pet food caused the deaths of an unknown number of dogs and cats, sparking the recall of 154 brands of pet food contaminated with the chemical.

Melamine has no nutritional value, but it is high in nitrogen. Adding it to feed makes it appear to be higher in protein, bringing a better price for the makers of feed for stock animals such as pigs, chickens and fish as well as companies that make food for household pets.

Yesterday, the FDA and USDA suspended their ongoing media briefings, which had been happening twice a week, saying there was nothing new to report.

Except, of course, the melamine UC Davis labs found in a pet food that wasn't on the recall list the night before.

And now the melamine the FDA's own labs found in the catfish they were testing - as far as I know (and having been covering this story since March 16, I know a lot), this is the first time melamine has been found in testing of food itself -- not the food FED to food animals, but the actual food itself -- meant for human consumption.

But other than that, everything's fine, there's nothing to see here, move along. It's perfectly safe because... er. Well.

It's perfectly safe because no one is reporting it, no one seems to have noticed, and apparently no one cares.

Comments

[Lew Orban]

Man....the truth is that the chemical make-up of melamine has 6 nitrogen....this is very bad for anyone consuming it. It not only will make you sick it will start an auto immune reaction that could lead to many diseases. Once the reaction starts some immune systems can not turn it off and then the chronic conditions of cancer, diabetes etc. will set in. This is very, very bad, and the FDA has to ban all food imports from China. The only reason they wouldn't is because the medical community and drug manufacturers are making to much money from the diseases melamine is causing.

Someone needs to take this over ASAP and get all these food imports banned. If they found Melamine in fish they found the signature of 6 nitrogen,,,,oh so bad!
Obewan

[MLO]

Do any of you really believe this is new? It isn't. Ever since Ronald Reagan and Carter lightened import controls this has been happening. (Both parties are guilty.)

Big Agriculture has encouraged monoculture here and elsewhere. The melamine contamination should not be a surprise when in order to constantly grow the same crops you have to fertilize the land with fuel based fertilizer in order to get anything to grow. The manure from factory farmed animals doesn't have the soil nutrients that old fashioned manure did. You are supposed to rotate crops to keep land healthy. This is no longer done in about 95% of agriculture. (The exception being small subsistence farms and organic farms.)

We have been destroying the food supply for the past 30 years. Why are we surprised to see this?

Pax,

MLO