First, if you haven't been over to PetConnection.com and seen the latest, go now:
FDA expands import hold, and FINALLY puts up some numbers
Second, I don't want to bump that off the top of the page over there, so I'm going to throw in a few news updates here tonight.
From the Boston Globe:
Rogue exporters have had little trouble shipping suspect products into the United States because the chances of being caught by an underfunded and understaffed Food and Drug Administration are slim.
Critics say the massive pet food recall that has triggered scores of lawsuits , raised safety questions about consuming domestic pork, and spurred at least two federal raids is also the result of an FDA wedded to an outdated approach to food safety despite the emergence of new pathogens and globalization of the nation's food supply.
As a consequence, the nation has become a dumping ground for suspect imports, critics say, because suppliers know there's not much chance of being discovered by FDA inspectors.
Sometimes exporters take extra steps to avoid detection. Chinese manufacturers of melamine -- the industrial chemical that set off the recall -- told the Associated Press yesterday that it is routinely added to animal feed to "lower the production cost and increase nitrogen levels." According to the Chinese government, two Chinese suppliers blamed for one of the nation's largest pet food recalls simply lied -- they marked exports tainted with melamine as requiring no inspection, even though they could have been used for human or pet food production.
Melamine isn't just in pet food, it also found its way into hog food and now, chicken feed. From a Monday joint USDA/FDA press release:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have learned that byproducts from pet food manufactured with contaminated wheat gluten imported from China have been used in chicken feed on some farms in the state of Indiana. This information came to light as part of the continuing investigation into imported rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten that have been found to contain melamine and melamine-related compounds.
At this time, the investigation indicates that approximately 30 broiler poultry farms and eight breeder poultry farms in Indiana received contaminated feed in early February and fed it to poultry within days of receiving it. All of the broilers believed to have been fed contaminated product have since been processed. The breeders that were fed the contaminated product are under voluntary hold by the flock owners.
There was a time when I thought if only the dog and cat food had been people food, the FDA would have acted. I don't think that's true anymore, given that they aren't recommending recalls for the meat from livestock that was given contaminated feed. Way to go with the "small government" thing, guys!
Last is my quote of the night, from an article today in the Washington Post:
"I do think this pet food thing has shown people, including people at the very highest levels of the administration, that something needs to be fixed," said William Hubbard, associate director of the FDA from 1991 to 2005. "If this isn't a wake-up call, then people are so asleep they are catatonic."
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