- Hello Jeff - As you can see, the US has revised Melamine
'tolerable' daily intake. This is yet another travesty being perpetrated
on the American public by the FDA criminals.
-
- Are we SO indebted to China that our government would
allow its people to be poisoned by Chinese food and food products? The
answer is YES.
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- It is not just in one food item, now we see it used as
fertilizer thus poisoning our crops...both organic and factory-farmed.
Organic soybeans from China are contaminated with it. It is
used in powdered milk thus poisoning baby formula. It is likely in
other milk-based and milk-product containing products like Ensure and other
medical food supplements. Just about any food on the food pyramid
probably has some melamine in it now...thanks to China. The slow
poisoning of an enemy would make ancient Chinese military tacticians proud.
-
- So, people who eat more than one food item are going
to be getting more than trace levels of Melamine. All products now in
dairy, vegetables, bakery goods and itemsusing GLUTEN and WHEAT GLUTEN
contain more Melamine. Is there any food that won't have some Melamine
in it?
-
- No wonder 'rare' kidney cancers are exploding.
-
- Patty
-
-
- MELAMINE CONTAMINATED FOOD PRODUCTS
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- Melamine In Chinese Soybeans Fed To Organic French Poultry
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- Source: AFP
-
- Chinese soybeans contaminated with melamine withdrawn
from the French market
-
- Nearly 300 tonnes of soya meal imported from China and
destined for organic poultry in Western France have been withdrawn from
the market after the discovery of a melamine rate fifty times higher than
the permitted standard, it was learned Friday [28 Nov 2008] from of the
importing cooperative.
-
- Christophe Courousse, communications director of the
cooperative Terrena in Ancenis (Loire-Atlantique), told AFP on Friday:
"One of the 3 imported batches, of 293 tonnes, had a rate of melamine
of 116 mg/kg while the standard [permitted maximum level?] is of 2.5 mg.
All food products made from these materials have been removed from the
market in early November".
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- Soybean meal had been delivered, before the chemical
analysis, mainly to 127 organic farmers in Pays de Loire through the Bio
animal nutrition (BNA), a subsidiary of Terrena a Mervent (Vendee), which
specializes in the manufacture of organic food.
-
- "The analysis of pork and laying hens show that
there is no danger to public health. Unlike dioxin, melamine does not accumulate
in the body. There is no transmission in the food chain ", AFP was
told by Fréderic Andre of the Veterinary Services Directorate in
Vendee.
-
- Soya cake with melamine has been used to manufacture
feed for farmers in 11 departments: Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire, Mayenne,
Deux-Sevres, Vendee, Calvados, Eure, Ille-et-Vilaine, Indre -et-Loire,
Sarthe and Orne.
-
- The company BNA announced its intention to sue for fraud,
adding melamine to "artificially inflate the protein levels and increase
the selling price of the product", said Courousse.
-
- "The organic sector needs 18 000 tons of soybeans
while France produces only 4000 tonnes," says Courousse. Imports from
China were due to poor harvest in Brazil, the traditional supplier.
-
- Controls on stored stocks have been carried out following
a warning from the European Union in late October, recommending vigilance
on imports from China.
-
- Meanwhile, the Ecocert agency, in charge of the organic
certification of imported soybeans, said that the Chinese exporter had
committed a "fraud" which its control procedures was unable to
detect. [ECOCERT is an organic certification organization, founded in France
in 1991. It is based in Europe but conducts inspections in over 80 countries,
making it one of the largest organic certification organizations in the
world; see <<http://www.ecocert.fr/Contact.html>http://www.ecocert.fr/Contact.html>.
- Mod. AS].
-
-
- "Our certification covers a production method",
AFP was told Jerome Viel, head of certification at Ecocert. The body, which
has an office in Beijing, controls "practices" and checks the
"traceability", but can not "guarantee" against "frauds"
such as the ones [suspected to have been] committed by the Chinese exporter,
he said.
-
- There are many ECOCERT controls on the products themselves,
but they "address mainly pesticides," he explained.
-
- Since that case, "we decided to increase the Ecocert
surveillance upon imports of organic soya cake, whatever their origin,"
he said.
-
- According to Terrena, the Chinese supplier in question
is Hongliang, based in Dalian (Northern China). Its export authorization
in France has been suspended by the Ministry of Agriculture, said Ecocert.
-
- For their part, European manufacturers of natural soybean
products have to specify in a statement that the products, intended for
human consumption such as soy milk, soy desserts, Soy steaks etc., placed
on the market, are not involved in the melamine contamination problem.
-
- Communicated by ProMED-mail reporter Susan Baekeland
-
- ******
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- US Revised 'Safe' Daily Intake Of Melamine
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- Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 Source: AP via Yahoo News [edited]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081129/ap_on_he_me/infant_formula
-
- FDA sets melamine standard for baby formula
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- Less than 2 months after federal food regulators said
they were unable to set a safety threshold for the industrial chemical
melamine in baby formula, they announced a standard that allows for higher
levels than those found in U.S.-made batches of the product.
-
- Food and Drug Administration officials on Friday [28
Nov 2008] set a threshold of 1 part per million [=1.0 mg per kg] of melamine
in formula, provided a related chemical isn't present. They insisted the
formulas are safe. [An FDA interim safety/risk assessment on melamine
and structural analogues, published last month, established for melamine
a tolerable daily intake TDI of 0.63 mg per kg of body weight per day.
- Mod. AS].
-
- The setting of the standard comes days after The Associated
Press reported that FDA tests found traces of melamine in the infant formula
of one major U.S. manufacturer and cyanuric acid, a chemical relative,
in the formula of a second major maker. The contaminated samples, which
both measured at levels below the new standard, were analyzed several weeks
ago.
-
- The FDA had stated in early October that it was unable
to set a safety contamination level for melamine in infant formula.
-
- Dr. Stephen Sundlof, FDA's director of food safety, said
Friday the agency was confident in setting the 1 part per million level
for either of the chemicals alone. although there has been no new scientific
studies since October that would give regulators more safety data. He had
no ready explanation for why the level wasn't set earlier.
-
- The standard is the same as the one public health officials
have set in Canada and China where in September the problem of melamine
in infant formula first surfaced. But it is 20 times higher than the most
stringent level in Taiwan.
-
- Sundlof said the lack of dual contamination was key because
studies so far show dangerous health effects only when both chemicals are
present. He emphasized that neither of the two tainted samples had both
contaminants.
-
- The agency still will not set a safety level for melamine
if cyanuric acid is also present, he said.
-
- Both the new safety level and the amount of the chemical
found in U.S.-made infant formula are far below the amounts of melamine
added to infant formula in China that have been blamed for killing at least
three babies and making thousands ill.
-
- "The levels were so low ... that they do not cause
a health risk to infants," Sundlof said. "Parents using infant
formula should continue using U.S.-manufactured infant formula. Switching
away from one of these infant formulas to alternate diets or homemade formulas
could result in infants not receiving the complete nutrition required for
proper growth and development."
-
- Reacting to news of the contaminated formulas, members
of Congress, a national consumer group and the Illinois attorney general
have demanded a national recall, something the FDA said made no sense because
it had no evidence suggesting that the formula would be dangerous for babies
at the levels of contamination found.
-
- After saying it made an error in its data, the FDA on
Wednesday [26 Nov 2008] produced these results: Nestle's Good Start Supreme
Infant Formula with Iron had 2 positive tests for melamine on one sample;
Mead Johnson's Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron had 3 positive
tests on one sample for cyanuric acid.
-
- Separately, a 3rd major formula maker, Abbott Laboratories,
told the AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in
its infant formula.
-
- Those three formula makers manufacture more than 90 percent
of all infant formula produced in the United States.
-
- The FDA said it had analyzed 74 samples and was continuing
to examine 13 more.
-
- The agency had left the impression of a zero tolerance
on Oct. 3 when it stated: "FDA is currently unable to establish any
level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that
does not raise public health concerns."
-
- The FDA and other experts said they believe the melamine
contamination in U.S.-made formula had occurred during the manufacturing
process, rather than intentionally. The U.S. government quietly began testing
domestically produced infant formula in September, soon after problems
with melamine-spiked formula surfaced in China.
-
- Melamine can legally be used in some food packaging,
and can rub off into food from there. It's also part of a cleaning solution
used on some food processing equipment.
-
- There is a gap between the concentration that the FDA
detected in formula and the agency's estimate of how much melamine could
contaminate food from the manufacturing process. The expected contamination
from processing - 15 parts per billion - is about one-tenth the amount
that the agency has detected in infant formula. FDA officials have not
responded to questions from the AP this week about how that gap might be
explained.
-
- The agency said it is continuing research on animals
to see the effects of ingesting both melamine and cyanuric acid.
-
- Byline: JOAN LOWY and JUSTIN PRITCHARD
-
- -- Communicated by: ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall
-
- [An emergency expert meeting on toxicological aspects
of melamine and cyanuric acid is to be held 1-4 Dec 2008. The meeting is
being convened by the WHO in collaboration with FAO. The Chinese authorities
have been requested by the WHO to provide information for the meeting.
For background, see http://www.who.int/foodsafety/fs_management/melamine_expertcall.pdf
Mod.AS]
-
- Patty
-
- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural
Economics Univ of West Indies 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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