- Hello Jeff - I remember two weeks ago on our Monday night
special on the contaminated pet food recall, you and I predicted that the
Chinese gluten had also entered the human food chain and that we would
be hearing about it. Well, Doyle & Rense were correct once again,
and, unfortunately, we are hearing about it. I believe that this is just
the tip of the proverbial iceberg. If the wheat, corn and rice gluten
are all contaminated - and they may very well be - one has to ask what
other Chinese crops and foods are contaminated.
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- After learning about this, why are we still buying crops,
or other foods and food ingredients from China? Do we have a death wish
for the sake of free trade? This has gone just too far and we must have
accountability.
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- The Democrats claim that they want to strengthen the
FDA giving them more power when it comes to food recalls. In my opinion
they are simply locking the barn gate after the horses have escaped.
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- What is needed is to end the import and sale of Chinese
poisoned foods to the US. IF the food is not contaminated to begin with,
then we don't need a recall.
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- Patty
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- US Hogs Ate Contaminated Pet Food From China
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- 4-26-7
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- BEIJING -- President Hu Jintao of China on Wednesday
urged farms to improve food safety and develop the organic sector, a day
after the U.S. food safety authorities said that thousands of hogs had
eaten salvaged pet food from China that had contained the industrial chemical
melamine.
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- Smithfield Foods, the biggest U.S. hog producer, said
Wednesday it was unlikely that it had fed contaminated feed to its hogs
but that it was checking all of its feed suppliers.
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- Urine from hogs in California, North Carolina and South
Carolina tested positive for melamine, a chemical contained in rice-protein
concentrate imported from China, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
said Tuesday. Hogs in New York, Utah and, possibly, Ohio also are believed
to have eaten tainted pet food, but their urine has not yet been tested.
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- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also is testing
rice-protein concentrate for a second contaminant, cyanuric acid, a chemical
used as a pool cleaner that is high in nitrogen.
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- The agency's theory is that rogue suppliers in China
added melamine and other compounds to inferior protein products, artificially
inflating their nitrogen content and price.
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- China has banned two companies suspected of selling contaminated
food ingredients from exporting products and has invited representatives
of the U.S. agency to meet with the Chinese government, said Julia Ho,
an official in the U.S. agency's international programs office.
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- The Politburo of the Communist Party listened to reports
about food safety, and Hu issued his warning, promising stricter rules
on growing and processing, the official People's Daily newspaper reported.
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- "Resolving the food problems of 1.3 billion people
and improving agricultural returns and farmers' incomes demands that we
accelerate implementation of agricultural standardization," Hu said,
adding: "Without agricultural standardization, there can be no agricultural
modernization and no assurance of food safety."
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- The Chinese public has been horrified by food problems
ranging from fake baby milk and contaminated pet food to carcinogenic fish.
The scandals have been blamed on unscrupulous businesses and lax official
supervision.
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- Meanwhile, American lawmakers are demanding stricter
safeguards and inspections of the human food supply.
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- In testimony Tuesday before a U.S. House of Representatives
oversight panel, ChemNutra, a company that imported contaminated wheat
gluten from China, and Menu Foods Income Fund, a pet food manufacturer
whose use of the suspect ingredient led to one of the largest recalls of
pet food in the United States, called themselves victims of a "fraud"
that probably would have gone undetected had dogs and cats not begun to
die.
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- The ease with which an imported ingredient laced with
industrial chemicals penetrated the pet food supply draws a "frighteningly
easy" road map for would-be terrorists to strike the U.S. food supply,
said Representative Janice Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois. Her comments
came during sweeping and emotional testimony that linked faulty federal
oversight to recalls of tainted peanut butter, suspect spinach, and lethal
pet food.
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- While the percentage of imported food subject to regulatory
inspections has steadily dropped in recent years, the proportion of imported
food used in domestic manufacturing has skyrocketed. There is no requirement
that the food and Drug Administration conduct an in-person inspection before
an overseas producer begins to ship ingredients to U.S. suppliers seeking
low prices.
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- Paul Henderson, Menu Foods' chief executive, told members
of the House panel that the system should be changed. Henderson said that
before Menu Foods was allowed to ship products to Europe, its U.S. and
Canadian manufacturing plants had to be "qualified."
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- It would be "a very good, positive step," he
said, if Chinese exporters shipping food ingredients to the United States
underwent similar accreditation, certification, and inspection of their
plants. Late Monday, after congressional pressure, the Chinese government
approved visits by U.S. agency inspectors to determine how the contamination
had occurred.
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- In addition, the agency will begin domestic tests of
corn gluten, corn meal, soy protein, rice bran, rice protein concentrate,
and wheat gluten imported from China to determine if those products are
also tainted with industrial chemicals. Such ingredients are used in breakfast
cereal, pizza dough, baby formula, and protein shakes, but Dr. David Acheson,
chief medical officer at the food and Drug Administration's Center for
Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said there was "no evidence"
that any of those human foods contained contaminated ingredients.
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- Since mid-March, the Menu Foods recall has taken 60 million
cans and pouches of pet food off store shelves. But the recall could have
easily included human food, ChemNutra testified before Congress. The gluten
was certified as suitable for human consumption.
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- Democrats say they will introduce legislation that would
permit the Food and Drug Administration to force mandatory food recalls,
a power it now lacks, and increase funding to hire more inspectors.
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- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
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- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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