Melamine pet food follow-up

[asterroc]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/05/08/china.petfood/index.html

The guy in charge of the Chinese factory from whence the wheat gluten flour was sold to the US is claiming that he doesn't even know what melamine is. He's being held by Chinese authorities for 30 days, and after that will be either charged or released.

Yes, you read that right, it's wheat flour that was actually contaminated with melamine and cyuranic acid, and it was then mislabeled as wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate. It was this flour that made its way into the feed for hogs, poultry, and fish, and none of the news I've read addressed whether the flour could've made its way directly into the human food supply. Meaning that individuals can only avoid potentially contaminated products by eating home-grown or buying from trusted organic-type farms. I'm screwed.

The mechanism for death is that the melamine and cyuranic acid react in the kidneys, causing crystals, organ failure, and eventual death. Kidneys play an important role in homeostasis, including filtering out impurities in the blood, maintaining the proper acidity, blood pressure, and levels of electrolytes in the blood. Screwing with any one of those individually will kill you, all three...

Although the FDA has received 4,000 complaints of pet (cat and dog) deaths, only 17 have been confirmed.

Comments

[galbinus-caeli.livejournal.com]

Ok, something is really funny here. Wheat flour and gluten flour would not be interchangeable in industrial food production. Something like that would have either jammed up the machinery or been caught in quality control. Someone would have noticed a substitution like that.

[dirkcjelli.livejournal.com]

You may be assuming a level of mechanization in the processing which is not in evidence.

It might be several hundred guys spinning millstones and filling bags by hand.

[galbinus-caeli.livejournal.com]

I am referring to the manufacturing of the pet food. Which is pretty highly automated. And oddly enough, I have probably seen that factory in action on an episode of the Science channel program "How Its Made"

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, the substitution was wheat flour for wheat gluten. I don't think there's such a thing as "gluten flour". But still, your point that wheat flour and wheat gluten are not the same thing and should've been caught in a billion different ways still holds. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for more info as usual, it could be CNN missed something important in the story.

[galbinus-caeli.livejournal.com]

Gluten flour is pretty common. Check your local health food store. It is used a lot in baking bread with large quantities of unmilled or lightly milled grains. I probably have some in my freezer right now.