Posted on 04/21/2007 4:41:44 AM PDT by Flavius
Yet another pet food brand, Natural Balance, has been found to contain melamine, an industrial chemical. Another yet again, the contaminated ingredient has been traced to China.With over 100 brands of cat and dog food being recalled, we're beginning to wonder if it's safe to feed our pets anything at all. Thousands of animals have been affected by the chemical and dozens have died.
Terrifying as the tainted pet food scandal has been for those who love their animals, there's an even more frightening fact to consider: China also exports food consumed by human beings. This week it's your dog; next week it could be you, or your child.
We don't want to sound like scaremongers, but there is good reason for concern when it comes to Chinese food imports. The country has a terrible record on food safety. Mass poisonings are commonplace in China, with an estimated 300 million cases a year.
According to "Who's Monitoring Chinese Food Exports?" by Nicholas Zaminska, published April 13 in the Wall Street Journal, chemical use is high in Chinese food production while regulation is lax. In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration only inspects a tiny fraction of Chinese food imports - even though China has by far the largest rate of rejection of shipments. Last month, Zaminska wrote, the U.S. rejected 215 Chinese food shipments; the dried dates were "filthy," the swordfish contained poison and the ginseng was contaminated with unsafe pesticides.
What about the shipments that weren't even inspected? William Hubbard, a retired associate FDA commissioner, told Zaminska that "The volume of food imports from overseas is approaching 10 million (shipments) per year, and the number that FDA inspectors physically examine is in the single digit thousands - making it virtually certain that any given food shipment will enter the United States with no FDA inspection."
The Chinese aren't going to do it for us. The government exercises little control over Chinese farmers, and their concern is money, not Americans' health. Attempts by the FDA to visit the Chinese plants where the poisoned pet food ingredients were made have been rejected. Other attempts to monitor the situation from the Chinese side have been met with refusals or denials. Honesty and openness are not Chinese strong points.
Behind this scandal and the tragedy that almost certainly lies ahead is one thing: Greed. The Chinese are trying to maximize their profits so they don't bother with food safety. U.S. buyers compromise standards and risk American lives because they can get the cheapest products from China.
Somehow, China must be made to clean up its act. The FDA needs to bolster its inspections of all foreign food imports, particularly those from China. An import tax on Chinese goods could be added to pay for the increased FDA costs. Products that are contaminated should be banned from the U.S., period. Europe has already done this with Chinese shrimp, honey and turbot.
In addition, U.S. companies that sell Chinese food products should insist that high safety standards are met. Those found to market unsafe food should be fined.
Finally, all products sold in this country should be clearly labeled as to the origins of all their ingredients. If consumers want to avoid food from China or any other country, they should be able to do so on their own initiative. For those that care, poultry products, sausage casings, shellfish, spices and apple juice are currently the leading Chinese food products imported by the U.S., according to the AP.
Will any of these steps be taken anytime soon? Probably not. Unfortunately, it will probably take a major human tragedy before the government wakes up.
You might be on the something. Under the legal doctrine known as "strict products liability," retailers are generally liable for death or injuries caused by the products they sell if the product is inherently dangerous when used as intended and fails to include appropriate warnings. If people die or are series injured from contaminated food from China that was purchased at Walmart or any other deep-pocket retail store, then you can bet that the "evil" trial lawyers will go after Walmart and the other retailers in mass tort class actions. Faced with potential loses that could reach into the billions, Walmart et al. will either stop buying Chinese food products and/or force the Chinese to improve the quality of the food products.
LOL that sounds like me. I try and get decent food for them but get an economical brand. Not of what I feed my cats and dog have been on the lists.
The big agri companies are all about profits, period. Do some google searches on Nestle baby formula and Nestle boycott, it will make your head spin. There was a huge scandal in Europe (made the media in Italy 2005) and formula had to be seized - seized, not recalled as the company refused to recall their product that contained poison. BTW, Nestle just recently announced plans to buy Gerber Baby Food for $5.5B. That’s not exactly good news considering this company’s track record. Just an FYI.
If I might interject a little rational thinking here. The pets weren’t killed by China. I submit that no one knows what killed the pets. The food was thought to be contaminated with rat poison, but that was not proven by subsequent testing. Melamine was found in small quantities,but no reports of the concentration exist. Yes melamine is an, “industrial chemical” but so is salt. Melamine is not a pesticide or hebacide, and it is not particularly toxic. It is not even controlled by the EPA because it has such a low toxicity and is not water soluble.
The LD 50 for melamine, which is the dosage in mice and rats, that kills 50% of the test animals, is ~3,500 mg/kg of body weight. The total gluten in the food wasn’t that much, so the trace contaminant melamine couldn’t have done it.
Sorry for the pet loss, but melamine,used in your Formica counter tops, refrigerator paint and dinnerware, isn’t likely the culprit.
My guess is it is some unidentified toxin from natural sources in the wheat and rice; maybe a fungus product.
Except that melamine is used by unsavory people to up the perceived protein count in foodstuffs. Just recently, will have to dig up the article here, a large amount of bagged melamine was found with bags of wheat gluten that were shipped to us from good ole Red China.
Fancy Feast is OK! | Sheba is OK! | Purina Friskies is OK! | Meow Mix is OK!
Didn’t New Balance recently become Nike owned?
Have you noticed that now instead of putting ‘made in China’ on photos of things in catalogues (JC Penney springs to mind) because so few items are American made, they have switched to labeling the American made items?
Breast feeding ping!
**We could be self-sufficient and not have to worry so much about all this. **
I agree.
**Sue the hell out of Walmart.**
Check the products in the fancy stores — they come from China too. Not only a WalMart problem.
I have a jar of McCormick black pepper, and one of sea salt, both in the little grinder dispensers. They are from France. I’m not sure we actually produce much of anything these days, except little mewling liberals.
Iams was just recently purchased by a large corporation, so the decision to use Chinese gluten came after that change. It’s not the same food as before. My husband works in the natural pet food industry and there are plenty of choices out there for consumers if they would only venture out of the megamarket. Consumers also need to think of buying food for their pets like they do for themselves. Quality ingredients will result in superior health and looks for your animal. Just go into any privately owned pet food shop and see what’s available. Oh, yes, and before you hesitate at the price, look at how much you feed your pet with a quality brand as compared to the megabrand. Two cups dry/day for our lab keeps her within her weight and gives her a wonderful coat. She’s seven years old and acts much younger.
China through predatory trade practices and a federal government that kowtows to transnational corporations instead of protecting individual rights, put American garlic growers out of business several years ago.
The whole disaster was documented with articles posted on this site.
Thank you “free trade”, the WTO, the traitors in the federal government, and the Codex Alimentarius for destroying the safest food supply in the world.
And that my friends, is the bottom line.
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