The chemical, melamine, implicated by the FDA in the recall by Menu Foods and other companies of nearly 100 brands and varieties of dog food, has been found in another pet food ingredient imported from China:
WASHINGTON Apr 19, 2007 (AP)— An industrial chemical that led to the nationwide recall of more than 100 brands of cat and dog food has turned up in a second pet food ingredient imported from China.
The discovery expands the monthlong cascade of recalls to include more brands and varieties of pet foods and treats tainted by the chemical.
“This has exposed that the safety standards for pet foods are not in place in any significant way and the kind of drumbeat, day after day, of recalls has shaken consumers’ confidence in the pet food industry’s adherence to food safety standards,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States.
The chemical, melamine, is believed to have contaminated rice protein concentrate used to make a variety of Natural Balance Pet Foods products for both dogs and cats, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.
The FDA has there is no evidence so far to suggest any of the rice protein went to companies that make human food, said Michael Rogers, director of the agency’s division of field investigations. But the FDA has not accounted for all the imported ingredient.
Previously, the chemical was found to contaminate wheat gluten used by at least six other pet food and treat manufacturers.
Both ingredients were imported from China, though by different companies and from different manufacturers.
China is not being as cooperative as it might in the investigation:
A lawmaker said Wednesday the Chinese have refused to grant visas to FDA inspectors seeking to visit the plants where the ingredients were made. An FDA spokesman later said the visas were not refused but that the agency had not received the necessary invitation letter to get visas.
“It troubles me greatly the Chinese are making it more difficult to understand what led to this pet food crisis,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told The Associated Press after meeting with the FDA commissioner, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach.
I find this new development extremely disturbing. Finding melamine contamination in a second product doesn’t so much suggest a shocking but isolated incident as a pattern of, what?, revealed by increased vigilance.
I am far from a China-hater and let me offer some words of advice. As American presidents have learned to their chagin, the coverup may be worse than the crime.
It continues to elude me as to how the FDA can be so positive that no contaminated foods have made it into the human food supply so long as the source of the poisonings, its provenance, and its distribution remain unknown.
