Posted on 05/01/2007 9:52:09 AM PDT by Milwaukee_Guy
PROBLEM: Poisonous or Deleterious Substance Unfit For Food Unsafe Food Additive
COUNTRY: China (CN)
REASON FOR ALERT: In recent weeks, there has been an outbreak of cat and dog deaths and illness associated with pet food manufactured with vegetable proteins contaminated with melamine and melamine related compounds. In response to this outbreak, FDA has been conducting an aggressive and intensive investigation. Pet food manufacturers and others have recalled dog and cat food and other suspect products and ingredients. This has been one of the largest pet food recalls in history, a recall that continues to expand.
Thus far, 18 firms have recalled product, 17 Class I and 1 class II, covering over 5,300 product lines. As of April 26, 2007, FDA had received over 17,000 consumer complaints relating to this outbreak, and those complaints included reports of approximately 1950 deaths of cats and 2200 deaths of dogs. The Agency is working with federal, state, and local governments, academia, and industry to assess the extent of the outbreak, better understand how melamine and melamine related compounds contributed to the pet deaths and illnesses, and to determine the underlying cause of the contamination.
(Excerpt) Read more at fda.gov ...
Me too, especially on long trips.
God Bless the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways!
Correct. Who knows how many years it takes this stuff to damage internal organs. I am astounded by all this. I am shocked that the sources seem so untraceable. I always thought everything, especially foodstuffs, where highly traceable, and I hate to say it but regulated, in all even half-ways civilized countries. Don't the Chinese realize this can harm their families and their own animals.
Good luck with the organic food. What I’ve learned since this debacle is that food labeled organic comes from China too. All it takes to be able to label it that way is just a little paper shuffling.
The Chinese don’t care much about their own people. They are actively limiting population growth.
We can’t realistically expect them to care much about our people.
I saw that too! I wonder why Pioneer doesn’t offer their flour online, instead of just the mixes?
Fortunately, my local store carries Pioneer Flour, so I don’t have to go far to find it...
I’m still waiting for their spec sheets. I’m pleased with the fact that they insist all their wheat and corn is domestic, but I’d still like to see it in writing!
That’s excellent! May I copy that and use when needed?
This is the reply from Bob's Red Mill that I received a few minutes ago:
Thank you for your email. We do source all of our wheat products, and the majority of all our products, from the USA and Canada. The Vital Wheat Gluten that we carry we source entirely from the USA and Canada. I have attached a letter written by Bob Moore to this email that addresses the Vital Wheat Gluten situation. I have included below a list of the sources for our wheat products as well as some of the other products.
We do source our Mung Beans from China, our Tapioca Flour and Arrowroot Starch from Thailand, our Quinoa Grain and Flour from Ecuador and our Coconut Flour from the Philippines. If there are any other products that are interested in knowing where we source them from, please feel free to email me with those products and I can than email you back with their sources. Thank you for your interest in Bob’s Red Mill Natural products and have a terrific day.
Oregon, Washington and Idaho:
Soft White Wheat (Washington and Oregon (some))
Hard Red Wheat (not a lot)
Spelt (Washington)
Barley, Pearled (Washington)
Teff (Idaho)
Hazelnuts (Oregon)
US and Canada:
Vital Wheat Gluten
Montana:
Hard White Wheat
Hard Red Wheat
California:
Rice Flour
Yellow Corn
Rice, Brown
Rice, White
Rice, Sweet
Rice, Wild
Beans
Almonds
Walnuts
Raisins
Canada:
Oats
Flaxseeds
Jennifer-Customer Service
Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods
1-800-349-2173
We buy Giusto’s flour by the 25# bag. I called them up and all of their flour and wheat products are all grown in Kansas. Bob’s Red Mill flours and gluten flour are all either US grown or Canada grown. I may call up Bob’s again and check that the Canadian is really grown there and not just “passing through”.
There’s also a company Montana Millers that has great flour and wheat products. I have a link somewhere, ping me if you want it.
That is really helpful. Thanks alot for all your trouble and posting the response.
Oorang - are we on the same wave length or what? I just refreshed the thread (was out and about) and replied. I used to go to Bob’s more than 25 years ago and buy their products, they showed us their giant stone mill. Everything all covered with flour.
Let me know what they reply please. Thanks.
Is that list of products what you found on the Gerber packages?!
If you do find a link for Montana Millers or Giusto's please post it.
You’re very welcome; I understand your concern. I sure don’t think “clean” flour is too much to ask. The past couple of weeks have been an eye opener as far as the sourcing of our food stuffs.
I’ve done quite a bit of detective work in the last few weeks about organic and China. One guy I talked to who is some kind of honcho in a company that imports “organic” food from China told me that some organic [sic] growers seem (note the word SEEM) clean, and others are a joke. He imports mung, sunflower and pumpkin seeds and buckwheat from China, supposedly from one grower or one area anyway near Mongolia far away from industry. He thinks they’re okay, or so he said.
The imported food (from this company) is tested for microbes but NOT for any kind of chemicals.
In order to be able to have the “organic” stamp, all any country needs to do is basically show the US some paperwork that looks similar to what organic farmers here actually have to do. No one checks, no one knows. Any food from China (and I use that term loosely) is completely suspect.
This man also told me that in the last 20 months the entire organic peanut industry has more or less collapsed and now all organic [sic again] peanuts are from China.
I will admit I ordered mung and buckwheat from Azure Standard* that are imported by this other company because the man I spoke with sounded trustworthy.
It’s beyond insane to import so much food at all, what to speak from China.
*Azure Standard delivers to most western states, they have all kinds of natural and organic bulk foods and other stuff, all the way from all kinds of grains and cereals, cheeses, kitchen tools, sweeteners, beans, canned organic stuff, just lots of stuff. Their prices are very good and they don’t charge for deliver as long as the order is $400 total.
They're selling our souls too whether we like it or not. They're entitled to their heavily lined pockets doncha know. Cheap trumps everything.
Call her office and ask.
Another wonderful byproduct of globalization.
I would like the link please....and thank you.
Good to “see” you too, Oorie!
Here’s some various links, haven’t ordered from all of them, but have garnered some info. At this point it’s worth doing detective work to make sure you and your family are not eating industrail chemicals.
http://www.wheatmontana.com/
(I was thinking it was called Montana Millers, but MM is where Azure Standard’s wheat is from, plus A.S. grows wheat)
http://www.azurestandard.com/
All kinds of everything, you can download their full catalog or email them and they’ll mail it to you. I think the prices on their website are not as cheap as the catalog. I just ordered from them for the first time but have had their products before at a natural food store. Good reputation. They’re based in Oregon.
http://www.waltonfeed.com/
The first thing on their website says “Chemical free wheat” - I’ve never ordered from them but many others have. Lot of info on the website.
http://www.aaoobfoods.com/bucketsoffood.htm#top
I contact the people above trying to find buckwheat grown in the US. They were very nice.
http://www.vegepet.com/forcats.html
This site has supplements for cats and dogs (and I think other animals) and recipes to make your own animal food. I’ve ordered from them, and am adding it to the catfood I make at home and my cats like it and are very healthy.
I don’t have a website for Giusto’s but if I find one I’ll post it.
Maybe this China poison food thing will encourage people to cook their own food from scratch using non-industrial ingredients - much healthier and cheaper anyway. I’ve always said if you can’t pronounce it and it’s not in your cupboard, it shouldn’t be in your food.
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