There’s still no news from the FDA or the USDA on the actual cause of the deaths of cats and dogs who consumed foods earlier this year that were produced by Menu Foods and other manufacturers and sold under a variety of brand names including some of the best-known brands in the country. By the FDA’s own reckoning they received more consumer calls on this recall than on any in the agencies history. They don’t know what did cause the deaths but they’re sure it’s not melamine, however contaminated the recalled foods might have been with that substance. IMO the FDA couldn’t have diminished public confidence in the government if they’d deliberately set out to do so than by its handling of this matter.
It remains unclear to me how one can be confident that we’re being protected against something thas has unquestionably caused pet deaths and injuries numbering as high as the tens of thousands if we don’t know what the heck to protect against. Nor do I see why we need a huge federal agency to tell us that everythings’s okay—after all, we have the Chinese government to do that for us.
Meanwhile, the FDA has placed an import ban on a number of Chinese seafood products for contamination with antibiotics, antifungals, and other chemicals (about which the Chinese authorities are not happy). Be on the lookout for the banned items to return in the form of fish meal, fish powder, or some other less-monitored food ingredient within a month or so.
This story on heavy metal poisoning of the soil in China should brighten your day.
More on the status of country-of-origin labelling from the New York Times:
“No. 1, there’s a basic consumer right to know,†said Michael Hansen, senior scientist at Consumers Union, an advocacy group that publishes Consumer Reports magazine and supports the labeling law. “People are more and more concerned about the food they eat.â€
But the labeling law has formidable foes, including the meat lobby, which so far has outmaneuvered its opponents on Capitol Hill. In the years since the labeling law was enacted as part of the 2002 Farm Bill, its opponents have successfully blocked all but seafood labeling from taking effect.
Read the whole thing. In my view present and proposed law doesn’t go far enough because country-of-origin labelling for food ingredients is not included.
