Nov 12 2008

China arrests melamine feed producer

According to Food Chemical News (November 10), China has arrested the owner of a poultry feed company in Liaoning Province.  The numbers are interesting.  Reportedly, he admitted buying 45 tons of melamine in July, using it to produce 287 tons of chicken feed, and selling 212 tons to the Dalian Hanovo Enterprise Group, the company that produced melamine-contaminated eggs sent all over China.  The remaining 75 tons has been destroyed.In the meantime, the Chinese agriculture ministry is reported to have sent 369,000 inspectors to examine 250,000 feed producers, and to have closed down 238 illegal farms.  It had already closed down 130 dairy farms, and 20% of the country’s dairy producers are said to be out of operation.

These sound like good steps to get the food safety system under control but what I’m hearing is that the government is dealing with safety problems piecemeal – one food at a time – rather than addressing the system as a whole.  Sound familiar?
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This is just the beginning. We need to watch any product where melamine can falsely boost protein levels, including and especially soy protein products.

Also, China is poised to send massive amounts of fish from its massive aquaculture industry to the US. Chinese melamine producers have already admitted that they sold melamine to makers of commercial fish food.

We need strength in the FDA now more than ever.

Rick Tannenbaum
http://www.foodrecalls.blogspot.com

  • Sheila
  • November 12, 2008
  • 8:45 pm

Just a drop in the proverbial bucket.
I still have no confidence my dogs’ food is melamine free or the rice noodles I eat from Taiwan are melamine free. I still have questions daily about the source of ingredients of processed foods, and now, apparently, foods I had previously not considered processed, such as eggs and fresh fish. There just still seems to be no consistent accountability.

FDA issues a blanket detention order for Chinese products:

http://www.asiabizblog.com/archives/2008/11/fda_issues_blan.htm

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