FDA Awareness of Dangers to Food Prior to Outbreaks
I watched the congressional hearing on C-SPAN yesterday. There was agreement that the FDA must do more testing and become more active in protecting the human and animal food supply. ---BBB
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
FDA Awareness of Dangers to Food Prior to Outbreaks
Article in the Washington Post -- FDA Was Aware of Dangers To Food: Outbreaks Were Not Preventable, Officials Say, by Elizabeth Williamson. Here's an excerpt:
The Food and Drug Administration has known for years about contamination problems at a Georgia peanut butter plant and on California spinach farms that led to disease outbreaks that killed three people, sickened hundreds, and forced one of the biggest product recalls in U.S. history, documents and interviews show.
Overwhelmed by huge growth in the number of food processors and imports, however, the agency took only limited steps to address the problems and relied on producers to police themselves, according to agency documents.
Congressional critics and consumer advocates said both episodes show that the agency is incapable of adequately protecting the safety of the food supply.
FDA officials conceded that the agency's system needs to be overhauled to meet today's demands, but contended that the agency could not have done anything to prevent either contamination episode.
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April 25, 2007 in E Coli, FDA
FDA to Test Imported Food Additives to Detect Melamine
Article in the Washington Post -- FDA to Test Imported Additives for Melamine, by Marc Kaufman and Rick Weiss. Here's an excerpt:
Concerned that a wide variety of Chinese vegetable protein products may be contaminated with the harmful compound melamine, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it will begin testing batches of six imported ingredients used in pet foods and livestock feed, as well as additives to human food.
Officials have not found the substance in food products for people but detected it in two imported ingredients widely used in pet food: wheat gluten and rice protein. The agency said that imported corn gluten, corn meal, soy protein and rice bran will also be tested. The vegetable proteins are used in bread, pizza, baby food and many vegetarian dishes.
Tainted Hogs Enter Human Food Supply
2007-04-27
Tainted Hogs Enter Human Food Supply
By ANDREW BRIDGES - AP
Several hundred of the 6,000 hogs that may have eaten contaminated pet food are believed to have entered the food supply for humans, the government said Thursday. The potential risk to human health was said to be very low.
Contaminated Pet Food Hits Farms
The government told the three states involved it would not allow meat from any of the hogs that ate the feed to enter the food supply.
No more than 345 hogs from farms in California, New York and South Carolina are involved, according to the Agriculture Department. It appears the large majority of the hogs that may have been exposed are still on the farms where they are being raised, spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said.
Salvaged pet food from companies known or suspected of using a tainted ingredient was shipped to hog farms in seven states for use as feed.
The government will compensate farmers if they kill those hogs, said Kenneth Peterson of department's Food Safety and Inspection Service. The department knew of no countries moving to suspend imports of U.S. pork products.
Also, a poultry feed mill in an eighth state, Missouri, also received possibly contaminated pet food scraps left over from production. The fate of the feed made from that waste was under investigation.
The pet food sent to the farms later was discovered to have an ingredient, rice protein concentrate, imported from China that was tainted by an industrial chemical, melamine. Testing also revealed other related and similarly banned compounds, including cyanuric acid. Food and Drug Administration inspectors were preparing to visit China as part of the agency's investigation.
Melamine is not considered a human health concern. But there is no scientific data on the health effects of melamine combined with the other compounds, said David Elder, director of enforcement for the FDA.
Still, the FDA and Agriculture Department believe the likelihood of someone becoming ill after eating pork from hogs fed contaminated feed is very low. Meanwhile, the University of California, Davis, is developing a test to measure melamine levels in tissue, Andrews said.
Since mid-March, pet food companies have recalled more than 100 brands of dog and cat food and treats; more recalls were announced Thursday. An unknown number of cats and dogs have fallen ill or died after eating products made with contaminated rice protein concentrate or a second tainted ingredient, wheat gluten.
Some pet food, while unsuitable for sale for that purpose, was still considered safe for animals to eat as it had not been recalled at the time it was forwarded to hog farms. Its use at hog farms raised the possibility that melamine entered the human food supply.
The department on Thursday released the following state-by-state breakdown of its investigation into farms thought to have received the contaminated pet food for use as hog feed. The farms were not identified.
CALIFORNIA: State officials are working to contact the purchasers of 50 whole hogs raised on a single farm.
NEW YORK: A breeder farm's 125 to 140 swine are under quarantine pending the results of urine and manure tests. None of the hogs went to slaughter.
SOUTH CAROLINA: Urine tests done on some of the 800 hogs now quarantined at a farm have tested positive for low levels of melamine. None went to slaughter. According to the state veterinarian, none of the suspect feed was fed to the hogs. Federal tests on the feed have come up negative. The positive urine tests could not be immediately explained, although contaminated feed could have escaped detection during tests, the FDA said.
NORTH CAROLINA: A farm with 1,400 hogs is under quarantine. It shipped 54 animals to a slaughterhouse, where they are on voluntary hold.
UTAH: Eight hogs sent to slaughter by one farm remain on hold. Also on hold are 3,300 hogs at a second farm, as well as 40 to 50 carcasses at a slaughterhouse supplied by that producer. Meat from no more than 100 other hogs from the producer, all processed earlier by that same plant, may have entered the food supply, Andrews said.
KANSAS: Meat from 195 hogs from a single producer may have entered the food supply via a Nebraska slaughterhouse. The farm is holding another 150 hogs.
OKLAHOMA: A show hog operation purchased contaminated feed but no hogs have gone to slaughter.
In addition, an Ohio hog farm has been cleared.
Each year, about 105 million hogs are slaughtered and processed in the United States.
I guess this is as good a reason as any to buy locally as much as possible. I buy meats and poultry from local farmers...eggs too. This is too frightening. BBB.
We know a person who did work for the FDA with meat inspecting. The staff has been gutted by this administration.
Imported food can sometimes arrive with danger
Posted on Sun, Apr. 29, 2007
Imported food can sometimes arrive with danger
By Deb Kollars, Jim Downing and Dorsey Griffith
McClatchy Newspapers
Recent spate of food scares has China on edge
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - With food coming in from all corners of the earth, the simple, necessary, daily act of eating in America has become not just an exercise in the delicious, but also the awe-inspiring:
Peaches in the dead of winter. Golden curries from Asia. Cookies that stay fresh for months. Powders that turn a morning smoothie into fuel for a marathoner.
But the global dinner plate also comes with dangers, as has been painfully demonstrated in the recent scare from the discovery of the industrial chemical melamine in pet food - and now, with experts warning it may have spread to the human food chain.
"This whole debacle where you've got a plastic getting into a food supply shines a huge spotlight on a broken, broken system," said Elisa Odabashian, director of food safety for Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports.
According to consumer and food safety experts, a vast array of foods and ingredients pours into the United States every year with little or no scrutiny. Much of the food comes from countries with less stringent regulations on pesticides, processing and sanitation.
In the past, grapes from Chile, raspberries from Guatemala and onions from Mexico have sickened or even led to the deaths of consumers.
In recent days consumers learned that pet food contaminated with the melamine was fed to hogs destined for market.
The revelations pushed worries over imported foods and ingredients to a new level and forced consumers to ask troubling questions about aspects of the food supply they may have taken for granted:
Who's making all the ingredients and additives going into food these days? What's going into products whose names we often can't even pronounce? Who's keeping an eye on safety?
Only about 1 percent of food from other countries undergoes inspection at U.S. points of entry. Often, reviews include little more than a paperwork check.
"The big red strawberries in the middle of gloomy January are very pretty," Odabashian said. "But they're very likely being produced in countries with far less regulation than what we have here."
For years, the United States exported more food than it imported. Recently that balance shifted. In 2006, the nation exported $62.6 billion in food items and imported $75.1 billion from 175 countries, a jump of more than 60 percent in the last decade, according to inflation-adjusted trade data from the U.S. Agriculture Department's Foreign Agricultural Service.
The bulk of what Americans eat still is produced in this country. About 15 percent comes from other countries, said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia. For some categories imports run higher, he noted. For example, 80 percent of seafood, 50 percent of tree nuts and 45 percent of fruits eaten in this country come from elsewhere.
In addition, a growing portion of foods processed here contain ingredients of foreign origin, with China an emerging major supplier.
How much arrives from abroad is anyone's guess. Currently, seafood is the only food required to carry a label showing the country of origin.
Packages of processed foods must only list where the "final transformation" of the product took place, according to Allen Matthys, a regulatory specialist at the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
Food companies must keep records on their ingredient suppliers, but they don't have to disclose that information to the public - or even the government - unless regulators suspect public health is at risk, said Benjamin England, an attorney who worked at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 17 years.
The nation's food inspection system is disjointed and inadequate, consumer and food safety experts said. Recent U.S. outbreaks of E. coli from contaminated spinach and salmonella from tainted peanut butter illustrate the need for a stronger food safety network, they said.
The FDA has jurisdiction over 80 percent of food produced in this country, including seafood, fresh produce and processed foods.
Yet it has only several hundred inspectors for at least 60,000 food processing plants across the nation, Doyle said. In contrast, the USDA, which oversees meat and poultry, has 7,600 inspectors for 7,000 U.S. plants.
When it comes to imports, the inspection picture is even worse.
The FDA is charged with assuring the safety of roughly 17 million product shipments each year, about two-thirds of them food. The volume has more than tripled since 1999, while the nation's inspection force has remained static in size. After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the federal government created new food safety measures, but it has followed through on few.
Under agency targets, about 1 percent of import shipments are supposed to get a close look from FDA officials. Such inspections can range from simply reviewing paperwork to actually sending a product to a lab for testing, England said.
Inspecting the food coming into this country is a worthwhile effort, FDA records show.
In March, FDA inspectors rejected 1,526 shipments - mostly food but also drugs and medical devices - from 75 countries.
China had 215 rejected shipments and India 279. A shipment of "Chilli" powder from Bangladesh was ruled "to consist in whole or in part of a filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance or be otherwise unfit for food."
The problems aren't limited to Asian exporters. A load of smoked salmon from Norway tested positive for Listeria, an often-lethal bacteria.
Many food contamination problems come from unsanitary or faulty processing.
But last week's revelation about melamine and related chemicals turning up in two commonly used protein ingredients - wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate - raised a different specter: deliberate contamination. Federal officials are investigating whether the proteins were spiked with the chemicals to make them appear to have higher protein content.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit consumer group in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday called for a ban on imports of wheat gluten, rice protein and other grain products from China until the FDA can certify their safety.
"This is a warning sign our system is really vulnerable," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the center.
Protein sources are so widely sprinkled across Americans' diets in products with long shelf lives that it would be impossible to do an effective recall if the human food supply got contaminated, DeWaal said.
In an unprecedented move, the FDA announced last week it would start testing imports of six proteins that are used not only in pet foods, but in breads, baby formulas, protein bars, and a huge array of other foods.
Targeted proteins are mostly used to make foods more nutritionally functional and appealing to consumers.
A creamier soup, a sturdier meatless sausage, a more nutritious baby formula - all can be achieved with ingredients made from soy, wheat or corn.
With constant pressure to cut costs, U.S. food companies increasingly turn to foreign suppliers for lower priced soy, corn and wheat protein ingredients.
"It's cheaper, and some places do an excellent job of marketing," Rushing said.
Consumer watchdogs believe labels should carry more information about where ingredients originate. But some industry experts said it would be impractical to do so.
"The label would be as long as your arm," said Daniel Fabricant, vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Natural Products Association in Washington, D.C.
Federal agents search pet food manufacturing facilities
D.C.: Federal agents search pet food manufacturing facilities as part of investigation
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP)
4/28/07
Federal agents searched facilities of a pet food manufacturer and one of its suppliers as part of an investigation into the widening recall of products made with ingredients contaminated by an industrial chemical, the firms disclosed today.
Food and Drug Administration officials searched an Emporia, Kan., pet food plant operated by Menu Foods and the Las Vegas offices of ChemNutra Inc., the supplier of one of two ingredients suspected in the contamination of millions of cans of recalled dog and cat food, according to the companies.
Menu Foods also said the U.S. Attorney's offices in Kansas and the western district of Missouri have targeted the company as part of misdemeanor investigations into whether it violated the federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act. The sale of adulterated or contaminated food is a misdemeanor. A Justice Department spokeswoman had no immediate comment.
"Menu Foods has been doing everything it can to cooperate with the FDA," company chief executive officer Paul Henderson said in a statement. "Even before commencement of this investigation we have given the FDA full access to our plant and our records, have answered questions and provided documents to them any time they have asked."
FDA spokeswoman Julie Zawisza would not confirm or deny that a search warrant was executed. "We have a strict policy of not discussing activities of our Office of Criminal Investigations," she said.
ChemNutra said it had been informed the company could be held accountable because it imported the melamine-adulterated wheat gluten used in the tainted pet food even though the company had no knowledge that its Chinese supplier had introduced melamine into the product.
"We have cooperated and complied fully with FDA investigators both prior to and since being served with today's search warrant, and will continue to do so," Steve Miller, chief executive officer of ChemNutra, said in a statement. "We keep very good records, which has made it relatively easy for the investigators to retrieve what they needed."
ChemNutra spokesman Steve Stern said FDA agents arrived at the company's offices in the late afternoon and stayed until late in the evening. They copied computer hard drives, Stern said, adding, "we complied completely with the FDA."
Menu Foods Midwest, an affiliate of Menu Foods, the company that last month recalled 60 million cans of pet food, earlier this week filed a lawsuit that seeks to have ChemNutra pay the costs of the recall plus damages.
ChemNutra maintains Menu Foods waited several weeks before notifying it about the problem. ChemNutra also says Menu Foods had other suppliers of wheat gluten.
Menu Foods, based in Streetsville, Ontario, recalled its products after 16 pets, mostly cats, died from eating contaminated food. Other manufacturers continue to recall pet food, with the FDA announcing the latest today.
The lawsuit, which lists Menu Foods Midwest, Menu Foods Ltd., Menu Foods Holdings Inc. and Menu Foods Inc. as plaintiffs, accuses ChemNutra of breach of contract and breach of implied warranties about the safety of the wheat gluten and its fitness for use in pet food. It said each shipment of wheat gluten came with a certificate saying it met Menu Foods' requirements.
"ChemNutra knew that Menu Foods was relying on ChemNutra's skill and judgment to supply high-quality wheat gluten," the lawsuit said.
Menu Foods said it faces more than 50 lawsuits.
Ill bet that melamine can be detected like an explosive. With all that Nitrogen by weight, a detector ought to go off while protein would go right through.
Im amazed at how callous the Chinese are about this. I read a summary article in the papere this AM that said a Chinese food inductry spokesman said that the stuff is safe.
Next time some Chinese kids want to know about a Western Style breakfast, lets tell em that we had "melamine tainted pork" two eggs with about 2% melamine residue and toast (made with flour containing 5% melamine dopin agent)
Thanks China, for caring about how we all eat.
Farmerman, I think we can thank the FDA and the USDA...and Bush's gutting of government. I am incensed! First it was our pets and now we find our food supply is in more jeopardy than we thought. I read "Fast Food Nation" and stopped eating at fast food places and started reading labels. I stopped eating most processed foods...
I think we need a big investigation...I bet it isn't just China.
Probably so. Sadly, I dont think anyone at FDA remains that isnt a political hack. I saw an article about the "benign nature of melamine" from an FDA researcher. So much bullshit has gone beyond mere acceptance of bad govt that now we have actual "advocacy" of bad government.
Sorry to sidetrack my own thread but you hit a nerve. I wish someone would start a thread about "WHAT WILL BE GW's LEGACY"
I thought the Dept of Agriculture would be in charge of inspecting pet food products. What's the connection between pet food safety and the FDA?
More pet fod brands added to recall list
Here is the latest list of pet food recall from the FDA. More brands of food have been added.
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/petfoodrecall/#All
I looked up both the FDA and the USDA and both are researching what has happened to the food supply to pets and humans. I have a lawyer friend that I called who is in the FDA and am waiting to hear if there is a clear definition between the two departments.
Littlek: I agree it is bad. If you haven't read "Fast Food Nation", do so. This has been coming for some time, but with the gutting of the government regs with this administration, I am not surprised, just disgusted and depressed.
I know that I have lost pets to the food. I just lost two cats to kidney and immunodeficient disease all of a sudden. I have no proof, but I now feed my animals on diets that have no ingredients that read animal byproducts...what the .... does that mean? I feed raw diet to my dogs and Innova Evo dry food with Wellness canned food to the cats, who also eat some raw food. They are thriving.
I am mad as h...!
I heard that a number of chicken producers in the Delmarva peninsula have had chickens and hogs (for human consumption) fed some of the recaled pet foods mixed in with grain rations.
Ive seen that the metabolic pathway involves the adsorption of the melamine onto surfaces of oxalic acid "stones" via Triazine breakdown and formation of Ammonia which speeds up kidney stone formation. I cant follow this process without opening up some old textbooks but it was reported to me as coming from a techy line freom the Food Chem Literature
Thanks, Farmerman...I am avoiding Del Marva chickens now...getting locally grown on farms nearby.
VietnamNurse - I's so sorry to hear about your cats! I fear we will all know someone who's pets were affected by this mess. I am mad as hell with you.
lad I'm (mostly) vegetarian right now. Though, I wasn't so glad during the spinach e-coli thing.
Food recall update
Food recall update 5/14/07
by Dr. Jeff Nichol, Albuquerque Vet
Albuquerque Journal
Investigations into the causes of the kidney disease of cats and dogs who consumed pet foods contaminated by melamine are pushing ahead. It turns out that the crystals that form in the kidneys of affected pets are a combination of melamine and another chemical called cyanuric acid. It was a difficult puzzle to solve because postmortem samples are usually preserved in formalin which, we have learned, dissolves the crystals, making them impossible to find.
A postmortem exam (necropsy) is a hard subject to broach with a grieving pet owner but tissues from the body of a dead pet can help save other lives. If your cat or dog has died of suspected poisoning from contaminated food you are urged to have the body necropsied with kidney samples submitted in a different approved preservative.
This disaster has been stressful for us pet lovers. The good news is that, according to the AVMA, more than 98 percent of pet foods are still deemed safe and haven't been recalled. I'll continue to keep you posted.
