The Tainted Wheat Coverup at FDA, Guised as a Pet Food Recall -

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The Tainted Wheat Coverup at FDA, Guised as a " Pet Food Recall " -

JoAnn Guest

Apr 07, 2007 10:45 PDT

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http://mparent7777.blogspot.com/search/label/scandal

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The Tainted Wheat Coverup at FDA, Guised as a " Pet Food Recall " -

UPDATED

 

Update below

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Apr 4, 2007

 

The Tainted Wheat Gluten, Are We Eating It Too?

 

After over 2 weeks of the Pet Food Scandal.

 

The horror of watching a formerly healthy pet die, or reading about

perhaps hundreds of other pets dying, because of a mistake or greed

or both of a pet food manufacturer is hard to bear, but many other

people have been asking this question in the back of their own minds...

after all, pet food is touted as being even more nutritious and tasty and

carefully made than our own food... so what if....

March, 2007, in the Bush Administration.

 

Pets are dying. Pet food is being recalled. The suspected ingredient is imported

wheat gluten, contaminated with melamine.

 

How can this be? It sounds like a bad fiction story again. Dog food

doesn't have wheat in it, does it?

 

Cats too? Cats dying from eating

formica product crystals?

 

Wheat Gluten, the protein extracted from the wheat kernel, is indeed

used heavily by processed food manufacturers of human foods. Because

I

don't eat it, I'm slightly " more aware than the average bear " when

it comes to having this knowlege of just how many of our American food products

HAVE the stuff.

 

Besides being used in many baked goods to add texture, and obviously bread,

it's in iced tea mix, vanilla powder,

cereals like honey bunches of oats, some ketchups, canned soups,

beef jerkey, BBQ spice rubs, lunchmeat, processed cheese, flavored

yogurts,

sauces, gravies, some artificial sweeteners, flavored tofu, candy

bars, it's injected into your thanksgiving turkey, it's in manufactured salad

dressing,

TV dinners, butter sauces at restaurants,

many canned spaghetti sauces, meatloaf fillers, au jus sauce on prime rib, etc.

 

You're thinking of trying to gulp... avoid this stuff? Welcome to my

world !

 

Of course, pet food manufacturers now also use many different grain

byproducts left over from other uses to act as cheap filler in pet

foods.

 

Corn distiller's mash from alcohol production, rice bran from

rice hulls, and wheat gluten in the form of modified food starches

to

give some stickiness to sauces and gravies, or gluten protein powder

in

jerkey chews.

 

Oh, how we love to feed our pets little chunks of meat

in gravy. Or at least the pet food advertisers try to convince us our pets would

love to be eating something that had been made to have that appearance.

 

Now, imagine if you're the FDA, and you have an imported tainted

gluten

problem. Would you be eager to share that problem with the American

Consumer, given that ....gulp... incomplete list I just made up off

the top of my head? Or would you be feeling some Republican Reluctance to

broadcast this? This could be... expensive.

 

After over 8000 calls about sick pets,the FDA this weekend finally

issued an Import Alert, #99- 26, a stop and detention on the

importation of wheat gluten from the Xuzhou Anying Biological Development

Company, China, due to the presence of melamine.

 

The Xuzhou Anying's Bio. Dev. Company's website is here.

 

In case it goes down, they say they produce and export " biologic

feed, feed additive, wheat gluten meal, fresh preserved vegetables and so on. "

 

 

Xuzhou Anying can also be found on the giant Chinese trade listing

site, alibaba.

 

According to their " about us " page:

 

 

" Our company specializes in the export of wheat gluten, wheat flour,

cornstarch, sweet potato starch, and other agricultural and sideline

products. We wish to cooperate with domestic and abroad merchants

hand in hand. "

 

" Industry Focus: Agriculture and By- product agents, agriculture

product stocks, fodder, feed additives, fresh preserved vegetables "

 

I have been researching this gluten story heavily since yesterday.

When something like this happens, everyone would immediately like to find

a scapegoat to blame.

 

Where is it from, who brought the tainted wheat

into this country, and are we humans also at risk of eating it? It was

speculated that ADM could be the culprit, but...

 

Just because Archer Daniels Midland manufactures wheat gluten

domestically does not make it the importer.

 

Just because the wheat gluten from Xuzhou Anying was contaminated

with melamine does not mean it was it was " poisoned. " It may, however, been

accidently or purposely mismarked and sold at a discount.

 

Melamine is not poisonous to all animals that ingest it. While it is not

supposed to BE in wheat gluten,

 

and is a harmful contaminant for pets, it could

have been in this because of a manufacturing process or mixing process error on

the part of the Chinese company.

 

This Chinese company, per their websight and a trade websight, also

manufactures high protein powders from grain products that use a

process that applies Non Protein Nitrogen,

also known as Urea, to the grain

protein to make it more soluble and stable.

 

Urea is also used in

melamine manufacturing.

Urea is also used in processing some livestock animal fodders, but

if not manufactured properly, it can cause ammonia poisoning to

stressed or hungry livestock such as sheep and cattle.

 

From wikipedia:

 

Melamine C3 H6 N6, ( Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen) is a organic base

produced from urea by either using catalyzed gas- phase production

or

high pressure liquid- phase production. Melamine is used to produce

melamine resin, which is combined with formaldehyde to produce

themosetting plastic. This plastic is often used in kitchen utensils

like Melmac, and is the main ingredient in high pressure laminates

such

as Formica and Arborite and of laminate flooring.

 

From Zuzhou Anying's Company's advertising on alibaba, we found they

also sell Camella (not " camellia " but Camella, tea nut) seed dregs,

or

the meal leftover from processing out the edible oil. This meal

product

is used in aquaculture ponds where fish and crab are raised, to kill

unwanted fish. There is no mistaking their pride in the quality of

their

wheat gluten meal

 

" Wheat gluten meal is also named wheat vital protein. The flour is

used

as its raw material, and from which extracts a light brown natural

grain

powder through intensively processing. It is a good soluble protein,

containing fifteen amino acid essential for human body. After all,

it

can yet be regarded as a plant protein food looking good, smelling

good

and tasting good. "

 

Here is the alibaba description of their " Esb Protein Meal " , using

the

original spelling. They say it will " bring about revolutionary

effect. "

 

" ESB Biologic Protein Meal " is a kind of high protein substance by

mixing coin protein and NPN and using high biologic technology. It

is

the high protein feed, the crude protein: CP160%-CP300%. " ESB

Biologic

Protein Meal " has no flavor and has no coolness, torpidity, cayenne;

it

has no contamination of chemistry and drug. It is safe;

nonpoisonous,

without bad reaction. The product is yellow or grey or white powder.

The

protein is permanent, endure high temperature, the freshen is 90%

min

and has no contamination. It has the good effect to promote the

protein

of fish meal and other animal feed. "

 

(ARC notes) " coin " may be " corn " or refering to the inner kernel of

a

grain such as wheat. NPN is the Non Protein Nitrogen, or Urea, which

may

be a byproduct of coal processing. " high biologic technology " means

they

probably heated and/or pressurize it with the Urea, the different

colors

of the end product could indicate they are using either different

grains

or different processing to get different color base products. The

crude

protein cannot be more than 100%, so that is an error. )

 

There was more than one suspect contaminant. Earlier, preliminary

tests

done by a New York on earlier samples of suspect pet foods seemed to

show one thing, a possible rodenticide, aminopterin, and the later

tests

showed the melamine which was traced back to the batches made with

that

particular imported wheat gluten. The FDA recall is about the wheat

gluten that had the melamine crystals in it.

 

Because the wheat gluten was " food " grade per the FDA, it is

entirely

possible that some of it could have been used in human food

manufacturing.

 

Because this Chinese company, Zuzhou Anying, advertises itself as

manufacturing both edible and non edible and (deliberately

poisonous)

powdered substances from grain byproducts, I think it is highly

possible

we have not yet found all the contaminents.

 

I was just now trying to decipher, using the FDA tutorial guide, the

codes the FDA has in the #99- 26 Alert, which importers use to

identify

substances by code, there are three:

 

product codes

02F 08

02E 06

71M 01

 

The numbers and letters stand for five things, Industry, Class,

Subclass, Process Indication Code, and Product. So by looking at the

first number, we see 02, 02, and 71, which is milled grains, milled

grains, and Byproducts for Animal foods, respectively.

 

So 2 of the codes are for food grade (human consumption) wheat

gluten, E

and F, but the third one is for Industry number 71, Byproducts,

class M,

which is not found in Byproducts Indusry 71. What is " M? " The FDA

has

also left blank spaces in the code numbers for these three batches

of

material it is searching for, there is supposed to be a series of 5

letters and numbers, and there is only 3, with 2 blank spaces left

in

the middle, which would help pinpoint more specifically.

 

This is extremely suspicious behavior on the part of the FDA, based

on

what I have read in Susan Hu's diary from yesterday on the FDA's

drop in

product inspections. I believe they may know more about the wheat

gluten's whereabouts than they are currently admitting to

publically.

And now let me speculate that indeed this gluten MIGHT be in the

human

food chain, and the FDA does not want to set off a stampede of

paniced

consumers.

 

I am concerned not only because my friends and loved ones could be

eating this tainted gluten, but because human foodstuffs are still

used

in pet and livestock manufacturing and that way the contaminated

products still might end up being fed to pets. Plus, we don't have

complete testing yet as to just what else is in this suspect gluten.

But

I'm most concerned that when I study the FDA's websight, and click

on

Alerts sections for Human Foodstuffs, there is no listing for this

Wheat

Gluten being recalled in spite of clear evidence ON THE ALERT that

the

wheat gluten IS human foodgrade. Being human foodgrade, then, there

was

nothing to stop it from being used in people food. It is only listed

as

a Pet Food Alert.

 

I guess we're all just dogs now to our government. And I'm not

trying to

be funny.

 

 

 

 

By American River Canyon

 

UPDATE

 

Is the contaminate Melamine or Aminopterin?

 

From the PETA Press Release - PDF:

 

Remarkably, the FDA appears to be covering up evidence that it is

wrong

in its most recent findings. Although the FDA says that melamine was

found in pet food and that it may have been the ingredient that is

making animals sick, at the FDA news conference on March 30, the

agency

did not report the fact that the New York Department of Agriculture

and

a top Canadian agricultural laboratory both dispute the FDA's

finding.

 

A spokesperson for the New York Department of Agriculture told The

New

York Times, " `We don't think this is the final conclusion. Melamine

is

not a known toxin. ... We are confident we found Aminopterin, and it

makes sense with the pathology.' She also said another laboratory,

Animal Health Laboratory at the University of Guelph in Canada, had

confirmed the presence of Aminopterin in the samples. "

 

Aminopterin Toxicity in Humans from Wikipedia:

 

The compound (Aminopterin) was explored as an abortifacient in the

1960s

and earlier, but was associated with congenital malformations.

 

Similar congential abnormalities have been documented with

methotrexate,

and collectively their teratogenic effects have become known as the

fetal aminopterin syndrome. When a similar cluster of abnormalies

appears in the absence of exposure to antifolates it is referred to

as

aminopterin-like syndrome without aminopterin.

 

Exposure and treatment

 

Symptoms of exposure in humans include:

 

* nausea

* vomiting

* anorexia

* weight loss

* chills

* fever

* stomatitis – inflammation of the oral mucosa

* pharyngitis – inflammation of the pharynx

* erythematous rashes – red rashes on the skin

* hyperpigmentation – increased pigmentation associated with cleared

psoriatic lesions

* gastrointestinal hemorrhage

* renal failure – in high doses necessarily involving concomitant

leucovorin rescue

* abortions in pregnant women

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets