Sludge Watch ==> Tainted pet food fed to hogs - Melamine in pork

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This is interesting.  On the US Composting Listserve I see that composters 
are asking if it is safe to make fertilizer from the melamine and rat poison 
contaminated pet food found in the US.


So is the contaminated pet food going to animal feed or to 'fertilizer'?  
Where did it go?

Again - the dark side of 'recycling'...and the fact that there are no real 
standards for 'compost' in the USA.

........................


Investigators: Tainted pet food fed to hogs

By Diedtra Henderson, Globe Staff | April 20, 2007
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/04/20/investigators_tainted_pet_food_fed_to_hogs/

WASHINGTON — Hogs fed pet food rejected as unsuitable for sale ended up
eating a product laced with an industrial chemical, federal authorities
said yesterday, expanding a food safety investigation that had been
primarily focused on cats and dogs.

It remains unclear, however, whether products made from the hogs will be
considered safe for human consumption.

Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center
for Veterinary Medicine, said the FDA will work with the United States
Department of Agriculture ‘‘to determine whether or not those animals can
go into the food supply. That’s a process that is still ongoing. We should
know the answer to that in a short period of time.’’

At least two US companies imported protein-based ingredients from Chinese
suppliers that were tainted with melamine, a chemical used to make
fertilizers and plastics. Since mid-March, manufacturers have pulled more
than 100 brands of pet food from store shelves in a recall that this week
grew to include rice protein concentrate imported from China that also was
tainted with melamine.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government continues to block federal investigators
from visiting the country to confirm the source of melamine.

Even though reporters were able to quickly travel to China and determine
that at least one supplier there openly shopped for melamine to
artificially boost the protein content of its wheat gluten, FDA
investigators still lack visas needed to inspect Chinese plants.

In addition to wheat gluten and rice-protein concentrate that the FDA
confirmed contained melamine, the agency has been alerted to a third
protein-based ingredient — corn gluten — that also included melamine and
was shipped from China to South Africa. For now, there is no indication
the corn gluten was sent to the United States, Sundlof said.

The current theory is that Chinese suppliers intentionally added melamine
to ingredients that were low in protein to ensure they would test high
enough to allow them to be labeled as protein supplements and command the
prices of wheat gluten, rice-protein concentrate, or corn gluten.

‘‘It adds to the theory when you see other products that are labeled as
protein supplements,’’ he said. ‘‘That melamine was found in all three of
those, it would certainly lend credibility to the theory that this was
intentional.’’

Members of Congress, pointing to $2.1 billion in agricultural products
American companies imported last year from Chinese suppliers, are
pressuring the Chinese government to cooperate with the FDA.

‘‘We strongly urge the Chinese government to quickly issue visas to US
inspectors,’’ wrote Rosa L. DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, and Senator
Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois. ‘‘Clearly, this is an important
trading relationship.’’

In the meantime, the FDA said it has begun to more closely scrutinize rice
protein concentrate and other imported pet food ingredients, which it
declined to name.

But confusion persists for consumers as incremental recalls continue.

After a single bag of rice-protein concentrate imported by Wilbur-Ellis
Co. tested positive for melamine, the San Francisco company said it
quarantined the entire shipment. Since July, Wilbur-Ellis purchased
740,753 pounds of the rice protein concentrate from Binzhou Futian Biology
Technology Co. It shipped 341,716 pounds to five pet food manufacturers in
Kansas, Missouri, New York, and Utah.

This week, Natural Balance of California recalled venison-based pet
products containing rice protein laced with melamine.

The FDA declined to name other firms until, in the midst of its briefing
with reporters, the Blue Buffalo Co. of Connecticut said it was recalling
a production run of Spa Select Kitten dry food made with contaminated
rice-protein concentrate.

The FDA has fielded 15,000 complaints from pet owners since the pet food
recall began. Outside researchers estimate 39,000 pets were sickened and
hundreds died.

Diedtra Henderson can be reached at dhenderson at globe.com.

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