China Bans Melamine, Rejects Pet Food Link

FDA Suspects Source Of Contaminated Wheat Gluten In China, Inspectors Invited To Beijing

(CBS/AP)  China said Thursday it has banned melamine from food products after the chemical was found in vegetable protein exports shipped to the United States, but rejected it as the cause of dozens of pet deaths.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials say they suspect the substance, which is a chemical found in plastics and pesticides, is to blame for dozens of pet deaths in North America.

China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday there was no evidence to support the FDA's claim but that it would cooperate with the United States to find out what actually killed the animals.

The ministry's comments were the first detailed response from Beijing to concerns that emerged a month ago about the country's wheat and rice gluten exports.

Meanwhile, officials in North Carolina say melamine has been found in all the hogs tested at a farm in western North Carolina. The farm has been quarantined.

The FDA said it was unclear whether any people had consumed the contaminated pork, CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes reported.

China has said it was investigating the issue but had not acknowledged until Thursday that Chinese companies had shipped gluten tainted with melamine to the United States.

The ministry said the contaminated vegetable protein managed to get past customs without inspection because it had not been declared for use in pet food.

"There is no clear evidence showing that melamine is the direct cause of the poisoning or death of the pets," the statement said. "China is willing to strengthen cooperation with the U.S. ... to find out the real cause leading to the pet deaths in order to protect the health of the pets of the two countries."

China shipped more agricultural products to the United States in the last year than all but five other nations, Cordes reports. That's $2.3 billion worth.

But Chinese farmers have a checkered history of using human waste, contaminated irrigation systems and powerful pesticides banned in the United States.

Also, the FDA only has the resources to inspect about 1 percent of all food imports, so it must perform a kind of triage, checking only the products that have the worst history of contamination, Cordes reports.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials have said they suspect Chinese wheat and rice gluten laced with melamine and added to pet food may have killed at least 15 cats and dogs. The chemical appears to have caused acute kidney failure in animals that have died or been sickened after eating foods contaminated with the chemical.

China said an investigation triggered by U.S. FDA complaints found melamine in wheat and rice gluten exported to the United States by two Chinese companies: Xuzhou Anying Bio-technology Development Company and Binzhou Futian Bio-technology Company.

The case has prompted China to step up inspections of plant-based proteins and to list melamine as a banned substance for food exports and domestic sales, it said.

China also invited U.S. FDA officials to visit China to help with further investigations into the case and to consult on improving inspection techniques, it said.

[northerner4-2009]

This makes me wonder if this is not a sort of test, by the Chinese of the safeguard systems in place here in North America. Since it seemingly was relatively easy to contaminate pet foods and be undetected for a period of time, perhaps this was a precursor to wider deliberate contamination aimed at the human consumer.

Since it took quite a period of time for the pet food contamination to be revealed, a similar case involving human food would have a large segment of the population fall ill before the cause was certified.

The Chinese have now done some of their homework, and the next phase will likely be much harder to detect, much more virulent and aimed at humans.

Let us hope that the FDA inspectors going to China are not lulled into complacency by their 'Oh so cooperative' hosts.

[pollroller1]

Northerner4, that makes no sense. We are China's biggest customer. They make billions maybe trillions of dollars a year selling us stuff. Everything we buy today is made, or has parts made in China.

[rosiemeow]

We cannot unequivocally claim with 100% certainty the actual gluten "tainting" occurred in China - it was, after all, imported into the US then distributed - by some questionable "businesses" (one supposedly owned by a Wall St. dropout who claims to have given ownership of the company to his Wife from China?) that appear to have fallen off the map.


http://community.whptv.com/forums/thread/1483113.aspx

[farmer371]

I can not wunderstand why we are importing wheat gluten from China. We grow more wheat in the U.S. than we can use. I am sure we are exporting wheat gluten abroad. Don't make sense.

[spargle]

duh - we sell it overseas at very low profit, the buy it back for an inflated price. Ain't commerce great?

[ralan40]

"The ministry said the contaminated vegetable protein managed to get past customs without inspection because it had not been declared for use in pet food. "

That is disturbing...
So what was this wheat gluten declared to be if not considered to be pet food? Potting soil? Food for Humans? A big screen Plasma TV?
Yet it got into our pet food supply, nontheless.
Nothing says it couldn't have gotten into human food.
Well I feel Oh so supersafe, how about you?

[rf35]

We so sorry. We not know what happen. We make cooperate to find how you poor pets poisoned.

Meanwhile...

Hide the melamine before the capitalist dogs get here. We're slowing them down with red tape over the visas, but we have to get that stuff cleaned up soon!

[taddles-2009]

China has an abysmal history of food safety, why would we ever allow imports into this country from China without major inspections? Imports from Canada and the EU go through rigourous inspections at the point of origin but we have nothing but the Chinese governments "word" that they are inspecting their food at point of origin.

We also have the Chinese governments "word" that human rights are not being abused (except at Tianamin square or Tibet or prison labor or pretty much everywhwere outside Bejing....well ok not in Bejing either) and we have thier "word" that our intelectual property isn't being stolen (isn't that right Intel) and we have thier "word" that they aren't buying up American loans to tank the American economy at some time in the future.

We can trust that the Chinese government didn't know about the melamine or that it was bound for pet food...come-on, we have their "word".

[erasmus6]

China said it had "banned using melamine from food products".

That means they admit using it and are now banning it. What ever made them think that it would be ok to put chemicals that go into plastics and pesticides into food ingredients?

Now the FDA has said there was rat poison in it and this melamine and have actually said they couldn't understand why this would kill the animals. They also said that there could be things in there that they wouldn't necessarily see unless they tested for specific things. So my point is, who is to say that these things are the real reason for the deaths? Maybe it is something else altogether that they haven't seen. It could be something else the Chinese have put in it or it could be something from here that went in it. AND if the food then goes back on the market, minus these ingredients, who to say it won't kill the animals again because it was something else that they couldn't see. They had a hard time figuring out that those two things were in it.
Who knows what is in any of our foods. Unless something is tested specifically for a particular thing, they won't know it is there. People die everyday of kidney failure and many other things. Who is to say it isn't from what is in our foods. Of course we already know that don't we?

[beanerman4]

Were we there before the mass poisoning to check out the plants? I don't know but would find that interesting to see if they ever even bothered to check out the facilities ahead of time. Does the FDA only rule in the US? And by the time they get there, the evidence will be gone. How "open" do you think a govt like China is going to be anyway. So great to have a global economy isn't it? Are we really saving a buck? This will wind up costing taxpayers, again, a bundle.

[northerner4-2009]

snip We are China's biggest customer. They make billions maybe trillions of dollars a year selling us stuff. Everything we buy today is made, or has parts made in China. snip

If you believe all the goodness and light stuff about free, honest and open trade, then you should really get stock in the Tooth Fairy. I am afraid, pollroller 1, that your attitude is precisely what the Chinese (and other not so nice people) want from us over here. They *want* you to think that the trade issues will keep things honest. They *want* you to believe in honor and justice and all the things they truly hate. Because that makes you vulnerable to their insidious ways. Remember - - their strategy is not election-year based. They look at things 'long term' and they are really quite willing to out wait any offering of overview by people on our side of the waters. They fully well realize that in a few months, this issue will be surpassed by some other more 'pressing' issue, and they can carry on without regard to any further consequence. Thus they eventually win.

[incog-nito]

I didn't know they grow "rape" blossoms in China (see picture).

[agnim]

"snip We are China's biggest customer. They make billions maybe trillions of dollars a year selling us stuff. Everything we buy today is made, or has parts made in China. snip"

MAKES GOOD SENSE!

Chinese have a longer history of being GOOD BUSINESS PEOPLE: They ALWAYS give 'bigger bang for the bucks'!

Only idiots will complain about a bargain!

[erasmus6]

beanerman4

"And by the time they get there, the evidence will be gone."

HELLO! It doesn't really matter because they have already admitted they were using melamine.

Now of course they could always find something else, I guess. But does it really matter? We should not be getting anything from them anymore because at any time they could be putting stuff in our food, especially now that they (and the whole world) knows that the FDA can only test about a third of what comes in the country.

[gkc99]

Reportedly, much of the contaminated Chinese wheat gluten came in through Canadian companies. Since Canada basically sells legal residency / citizenship to anyone with a few hundred thousand dollars, it is easy for Chinese business people to buy a presence in Canada, ship their undergrade products to Canada, and thence to the US. The US doesn't pay much attention to the quality of goods coming from Canada as it has up until now been good due to rigorous Canadian internal standards. But now that the corner-cutting and fraudulent Asian business people use Canada as a front, perhaps stricter attention should be paid to all Canadian products.

[terrapin78]

Only idiots will complain about a bargain!
Posted by Agnim at 04:11 PM : Apr 26, 2007

Only trailer trash would put "bargains" ahead of the American worker. Go ahead and continue to shop at Wal-Mart. You are the ones that are killing the countries ability to make a product. How did the USA win WWII? We out produced the world. We would be lucky to out produce anyone now days.

That is what "bargains" have done to this country. And it is no bargain!

[erasmus6]

gkc99

You need to get your facts straight. The Canadian company that makes the pet food, got the ingredients from an American company. The American company is the one that got the ingredients from China.

[erasmus6]

ingredients meaning "Wheat gluten".

[agnim]

"Only trailer trash would put "bargains" ahead of the American worker. Go ahead and continue to shop at Wal-Mart. You are the ones that are killing the countries ability to make a product.
Posted by Terrapin78 at 05:16 PM : Apr 26, 2007"

You must be one of the 'workers' who never learn to think! And so the rabble rousing politicians play you for a fool.

It is the AMERICAN CORPORATIONS who are *** American workers, AND THE CHINESE WORKERS TOO!

The American corporations NEED TO SHARE THE WEALTH WITH THE AMERICAN WORKERS!

[p9353apb]

With the amount of regulated, healthy food grown in the USA why would any fool import food? Money, of course!

[cleaningoc]

It is shameful the FDA only inspects 1% of our imported food products. Does the government know how vuneralbe we are? It would be so easy to be attacked through our foreign food source? Why do we NOT give our Farmer's a break, help them bring thier products to market. Shame! Shame America! Please stop betraying us with tainted imports and allowing these foreign countries to poison us. Do you have to have a child die before you stop this practice? It certainly seems so!!!!! Does anyone out there get how serious this is, well??? I do not know of this happening in other countries? I would like to know if we are the target. Wake up the alarm is ringing.. smell the coffee, but be aware of where it came from!!!!

[akrk33nnn]

erasmus6

I have a feeling you would no longer be interested if you found out that all current trade deals with China, including MFN (Most Favored Nation) status, were negotiated by the Clinton administration. The Bush administration has made few changes to trade relations with China, with the exception of imposing a tarriff on glossy paper about a month ago, and filing two suits with the WTO about two weeks ago.

[akrk33nnn]

not erasmus6, billysmith6. sorry erasmus6