Posted on 04/04/2007 5:42:29 AM PDT by girlangler
ChemNutra Announces Nationwide Wheat Gluten Recall
Contact: Devon Blaine/Lisa Baker 310-360-1499
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE --Las Vegas, NV -- April 3, 2007 -- ChemNutra Inc., of Las Vegas, Nevada, yesterday recalled all wheat gluten it had imported from one of its three Chinese wheat gluten suppliers – Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd.
The wheat gluten ChemNutra recalled was all shipped from China in 25 kg. paper bags, and distributed to customers in the same unopened bags. The bags were all labeled "Wheat Gluten Batch No.: _______ Net Weight: 25 kg Gross Weight: 25.1 kg Made in China". The batch numbers included in the recall are 20061006, 20061027, 20061101, 20061108, 20061122, 20061126, 20061201, 20061202, 20061203, 20061204, 20061205, 20061206, 20061208, 20061221, 20070106, 20070111, 20070116, and 20070126. Each ChemNutra shipment had the certificate of analysis information from the supplier, including batch number and the supplier's content analysis and test results. ChemNutra shipped from its Kansas City warehouse to three pet food manufacturers and one distributor who supplies wheat gluten only to the pet food industry. ChemNutra's shipments commenced November 9, 2006 and ended March 8, 2007. ChemNutra did not ship to facilities that manufacture food for human consumption, and the distributor ChemNutra shipped to supplies wheat gluten only to pet food manufacturers. The total quantity of Xuzhou Anying wheat gluten shipped was 792 metric tons.
ChemNutra learned on March 8 from one pet food manufacturer that the wheat gluten it had sold them – all from the Xuzhou Anying - was among ingredients suspected as a potential cause of pet food problems. ChemNutra immediately quarantined its entire wheat gluten inventory and assisted this customer's investigation.
After that manufacturer issued a pet food recall, the FDA immediately commenced a thorough investigation of ChemNutra's wheat gluten, including documentation analysis, inspection, and laboratory testing. ChemNutra cooperated fully with the FDA and immediately notified its other three wheat gluten customers about the FDA's investigation. Those customers had all purchased smaller amounts of the Xuzhou Anying wheat gluten commencing in January, 2007.
On Friday, March 30, the FDA announced they had found melamine in samples of the wheat gluten ChemNutra had imported from Xuzhou Anying. The FDA did not inform ChemNutra of any other impurities in the Xuzhou Anying wheat gluten, nor of any impurities in the wheat gluten from ChemNutra's other two Chinese suppliers.
The toxicity of melamine is not clear. However, since melamine is not approved by the FDA for pet food, it should absolutely not have been in wheat gluten. ChemNutra is extremely concerned about the purity of all of its products. The company is particularly troubled that the certificates of analysis provided by the above-named supplier did not report the presence of melamine.
ChemNutra wants to ensure its products are safe. Consequently, in addition to its ongoing cooperation with the FDA, ChemNutra will be conducting its own independent, analytical tests of wheat gluten from all of its suppliers.
Yesterday ChemNutra sent recall notices to all four of its direct customers. If any other company received bags of recalled wheat gluten from the lot numbers referenced above, please call ChemNutra at 702.818.5019.
Consumers who have questions about the pet food they should go to the FDA's website at www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01590.html. This website lists all brands of petfood involved, with links to the manufacturer who should be contacted with questions.
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FDA's Recalls, Market Withdrawals and Safety Alerts Page: http://www.fda.gov/opacom/7alerts.html
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Well our local news last night said not to worry because none of the wheat gluten was in human food. Will we ever know?
My wife can’t eat it either (celiac disease). and it is in almost everything, even products where your would not suspect it and it is not really needed.
Thanks for this very important info. Hmmmm.
I suspect we ingest more wheat glutin (from China) than we know. Check post #13 out freepers.
We have the poisoned pet food and the contaminated peanut butter. Does anyone know where the peanuts came from that were contaminated since we now know where the wheat gluten came from.
Why did China feel it had to issue a statement that its wheat gluten was not harmful to humans yesterday? Because most Canadian baking products contain Chinese gluten. Be sure to check the label to see where your sweet rolls or cookies were produced, particularly if you buy them at a discount or dollar store. With no safety regulations in China, buying any food for man or beast made there is a huge gamble.
According to ChemNutra.
Since the FDA hasn't been prepared to guarantee that's the case, seems the FDA is unwilling to take the company's word for it.
Go figure.
The issue is not wheat gluten, which is a sub-commodity like a lot of other agricultural products. The issue is the melamine contamination found by the FDA in the gluten. Nowhere have I seen anything about the melamine concentration in the gluten. This is a key to the cause and effect relationship being apparently accepted as fact by everyone.
Melamine, which I’ve worked with for many years, is not a hazardous material. It is relatively insoluble in water so it is surprising that the Chinese used it as a fertilizer for the wheat, which is the guess as to how it got there in the first place. It is also an expensive chemical, not like urea which is a common fertilizer everywhere.
So why the Chinese used it is a mystery. Of course China is the country where, “night soil” is the standard method of crop fertilization, so they probably use whatever nitrogen rich stuff they can get.
Melamine is by the standard tests on mice and rats, slightly toxic, which means it has a LD 50 of between 500 and 5000 Mg/Kg of body weight. The actual test number is 3000Mg for mice and ~3,500Mg for rats. Above 5000 a substance is not toxic to mammals.
The EPA does not even see fit to regulate melamine.
All of this tells me melamine is not the culprit. Maybe there’s something else in the gluten. But for there to be enough melamine in there to kill a 10 lb. cat or small dog, we’re talking 15-16 gms of stuff. There probably isn’t that much gluten in there.
Expect more like this. 2004 was the first year when we imported more food than we exported. This is probably due to over regulation in this country which leads farmers to sell their land to grow housing developments.
Sounds like a Chinese front company in the US
We specialize in Taurine, L-Cysteine, Glycine, Vital Wheat Gluten, and Glucuronolactone, and we also handle many other ingredients.
Sounds like stuff that would find its way into human food, particularly "health food" items
ChemNutra imports over 4,000 tons per year, and our customers include several Fortune 500 companies.
I doubt that will last. ChemNutra is hosed. They got a new supplier for a food product and it doesn't look like they did "due diligence" to perform chemical analysis on the batches they got, to ensure there wasn't bad stuff there
What will happen now is
Yow, that's an eye-opening phrase I need to remember. I know firsthand that "ultra-competive pricing", "quality-assured manfacturers", and "China" don't go together for auto parts, electronics, and laminate flooring, now I can add another food entry to the list.
(I have already sworn off Chinese soy sauce because of the "human hair" incident. There's a google project for the kids for a lazy rainy afternoon.)
Might I suggest...organic. No pesticides. Sam’s and Costco carry organic pasta, cereals, etc. Flame away.
Only after the fact. I like the idea I read on a survivalist thread here some time ago about water and food: the guy has a couple-day supply of drinking water and a couple-week supply of food. He figures that any terrorist contamination project will make the news while he's still consuming his inventory. Then he will make sure not to get any new inventory until he gets the all-clear.
The Chinese government doesn't want the peasants to have ready access to ammonium nitrate.
Now I know why two Grocery store chains here in the NW have pulled all their bread from the shelves.
I only know of those two,because they are the stores I go to most.
I have been wondering about a Nacho Cheese flavored chip product. I was at a local Big Box grocery store recently, and I wanted to buy a Family Size bag of the above mentioned product. The shelf was empty because the product was abnormally discounted. So I was going to buy two of the regular-sized bags even though they were more expensive. When I got to the checkout line, I saw another shelf with the discounted Family Size bag, so I grabbed one and put the smaller bags back. When we opened the bag, and I took my first bite, I tasted bug spray. Now I taste/smell such every now and then. I wasn’t very certain. No one else tasted it. But the taste was enough for me to remember AND eat only a few of the chips. This was about two months ago.
I’ve heard lots of our apple juice is from China, and they have planted a vast amount of trees.
I was in Target; and they had these candy coated sunflower seeds. They were rather inexpensive valentine candy. My daughter looked closely at them and said look where they are made. China...
This may seem a simple question but where did the peanuts come from. I don’t assume they came from Georgia though that would seem to make sense. Were they imported?
That cannot be revealed at this time. However, we have been assured that after your passing, every effort will be made to contact you on the Other Side with the answers you seek.
Thank you for your purchases and support. We value you as a customer.
CA....
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