Filler in Animal Feed Is Open Secret in China

[MannyGoldstein]

Source: New York Times

ZHANGQIU, China, April 28 — As American food safety regulators head to China to investigate how a chemical made from coal found its way into pet food that killed dogs and cats in the United States, workers in this heavily polluted northern city openly admit that the substance is routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein.

For years, producers of animal feed all over China have secretly supplemented their feed with the substance, called melamine, a cheap additive that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any nutritional benefits, according to melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.

“Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed,” said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine. “I don’t know if there’s a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there won’t be any regulation.”

--------

In recent years, for instance, China’s food safety scandals have involved everything from fake baby milk formulas and soy sauce made from human hair to instances where cuttlefish were soaked in calligraphy ink to improve their color and eels were fed contraceptive pills to make them grow long and slim.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/business/worldbusiness/30food.html?hp

---

I'd like to thank Presidents Bush, Clinton, and Bush for their unceasing support of 'free' trade. Without this wonderful effort, the yummy eels down in Chinatown would be short and stout (and my wife would be able to conceive.)

And my dog would be alive.

And I'd have a job.

[Fridays Child]

1. Regulated industries? We don't need no stinking regulated industries.

This was bound to happen. Safety be damned. Profit is god.

[NJCher]

2. repeat the lie

This article repeats the lie that 16 animals died. Try 39,000. That's the figure I heard quoted from a survey of vets.



Cher

[Skittles]

3. you get what you pay for

communism is in vogue for greedy corporate bastards

[DBoon]

4. We teach them unfettered greed

They teach us repression

We both learn.

Like the end of Animal Farm, when the pigs and the humans could not be told apart.

[denverbill]

33. Maybe this will finally push COOL over the top.

American consumers deserves to know WHERE their food originates.

[Skittles]

43. yes

if they can put MADE IN CHINA on cheap trinkets at Wal Mart they can damn well put on pet food AND human food MADE WITH INGREDIENTS FROM CHINA so I know NOT TO F***ING BUY IT. *GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*

[anotherdrew]

5. every industry needs to be strictly regulated and triple-inspected

enough of this bullshit of everyone just does shit their own way. There's a best way to do things, find them, document them, then make sure that's how it gets done. Got a new process? It's got to be tested first. Auditors and inspectors should be the next high-growth job market.

[54anickel]

8. So, the food industry has never heard of ISO? Not that I'm singing praises

for it (my experience, hence opinion, aligns pretty well with Dilbert's). However, the food industry might not be a bad application for it. You do it this way to these standards or we don't buy....Oh, wait a minute, I forgot...our greedy US based corporations don't really care about standards - just increasing profits.

Why can't our farmers compete? Oh yeah, Cuz they can't pull this kind of shit. But let's just blame China alone. The greedy corporate bastards never thought of investigating those "low prices" as being too good to be true. Guess they figured their savings was all based on slave-labor alone. :eyes: :grr:

[otherlander]

6. Soy sauce.

Hair. How? The fuck, What? >_<* Gah.

[Frank Cannon]

22. I'll be taking a long, hard look at that Kikkoman's bottle...

next time I'm at the local Chinese restaurant.

:puke:

[hertopos]

48. Excuse me, Kikkoman is Japanese Brand.

Check it if it is La Choy. I was always avoiding Chinese import food whenever I go to Asian Food store. I normally buy Japanese made food since
1. I am Japanese and I know brand's names.
2. More than 10 years, Japanese consumers have been raising red flag about Chinese food import.

We are only talking about food additives here. Actually, there are another huge problem. Pesticide residues. Again, they have no regulation over there.

People in U.S. should think more about the importance of many regulations.

Hertopos

[Frank Cannon]

49. Ah.

Still, it's usually the brand I see on the table when I go to our local Chinese eatery.

Besides, no matter what's ON the bottle, there could be anything IN it.

[mile18blister]

7. Shout it from the rooftops:

"This open-door policy on food ingredients is an open invitation for an attack on the food supply, either intentional or unintentional."

[54anickel]

9. Does their MFN trading status still come up for annual renewal? Cuz if it does,

maybe we "doesn't".

On edit - (meant to reply to the OP)

[MannyGoldstein]

27. No - Permanent MFN Status

Thanks to Mr. Clinton.

[anitar1]

34. That must have been worth a lot to someone. n/t

[nealmhughes]

10. Hopefully this will be the last nail in the coffin of unfettered unregulated "free trade" fetish.

Once again capitalism triumphs -- OOPS! -- Chinese "Communism", though these days who can tell them apart? Who knew that we lived in a security state instead of one of the most open republics in history until recently . . .

China ain't France sending us cheese, y'all. . .and it sure ain't Chile sending us winter fruit.

[whirlygigspin]

12. what you'll see in tomorrow's papers

AGENCIES
Monday, Apr 30, 2007, Page 7
■ CHINA
People poisoned by nitrite
A seven-year-old boy died and 55 others fell violently ill after eating poisonous beef in an ethnic minority area in southwest Yunnan Province, state media reported yesterday. The victims, all residents of Zhadian Township, had eaten beef stew on Thursday spiked with the chemical nitrite, which is toxic in excessive amounts, Xinhua news agency said. The street vendor who sold the stew had run out of salt when cooking the dish and grabbed "something that looked like salt" instead, according to the agency. Sample tests of the stew showed more than 12g of nitrite per kilo of beef, four times the fatal amount, Xinhua said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2007/04/30/2003358893

[still_one]

19. I would prefer another source than the Taipei times. Not saying it isn't accurate

but sources from Taipan about China have their own specific agenda also

Everything that the OP posted about NAFTA, trace without enforcing or requiring regulation on the products from international sources is right on though.

However, I believe we should be producing our own food, and not depending on international sources for it

[Hekate]

11. KnR. Here's to source-labeling on everything. nt

[Occulus]

13. Looks like China and Republicans have something very fundamental in common:

"The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there won’t be any regulation."

I think we're all quite familiar with that mentality, no?

[loudsue]

36. No...w/ the repukes, even if there IS an accident, there won't be regulation.

Not, that is, if there's a greater profit to be made and refunnelled into RNC coffers.

:kick:

[krkaufman]

14. Well, when you start hawking concepts like "globalization" as an end-around ...

... all the environmental, labor and health & safety regulation that people fought & died to put in place over a hundred years, what the hell do you expect to have happen?

[bonito]

15. And we have a fake president

This is public perception manifested into fake physical reality.
Whacked out.:shrug:

[gravity]

16. It could be worst

At least we don't live in China

[lefador]

17. Why the f*ck are we importing animal feed from China?

Jesus H. Christ, shipping tons of feed through shipt HAS to be more expensive that using the local stuff... heck we have to subsidice our farms not too produce so much. I just don't get it really?

Half of the stuff we import from china (electronics, etc) are really not that labor intensive, so what the heck is going on?

[Shallah Kali]

18. prison labor, big government subsidies, little to no safety environmental labor rules and regs

stuff like that make things from China dirt cheap so our corporations like WalMart who iirc imports more from China than any one else don't care if it really IS made out of dirt.

[still_one]

21. Sorry but you are believing the western propaganda. There is plenty of corruption

but they don't have prison labor producing it. They have farms, and more than enough people. As far as your comments on environemntal and labor rules and regs you are pretty much correct, but part of the problem is that OUR government isn't DEMANDING IT

[Shallah Kali]

32. So when groups like Amnesty International write of 'reducation though labor' that is propaganda?

and whether it was prison labor or not I remember reading of how workers in factories will handle toxic substances with little to no protection leading to illness and death.

I do agree the US government is part of the problem. We should have laws banning imports from countries that do not have equal or better food safety, worker safety, and environmental laws. No one should have to suffer just so Americans can buy a DVD player for under $100 or pet food a few cents cheaper.

[demo dutch]

42. The bottom line is that it's cheaper from China so bigger profits for the US companies

[demo dutch]

39. Not just Walmart. Check your local supermarkets, You'd be surprised. Stuff

comes from all over, and who knows what those countries use. Like peaches in January from latin America. Better wait and buy peaches from Georgia in the summer!

[still_one]

20. Actually you are not correct. I live in Northern California, and Gilroy used to produce garlic

Now most of it comes from China. It was far cheaper for them to do it.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20030723-9999_1b23garlic.html

In my view we should be producing are own food, and NOT BE DEPENDENT ON ANY OTHER COUNTRY FOR IT

[demo dutch]

38. Buy local and support your farmers market! and don't buy stuff out of season!

[leftchick]

23. wow! reactive just like our FDA

“I don’t know if there’s a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there won’t be any regulation.”


greatest nation on earth my ass. :puke:

[formercia]

24. Here's the tin foil hat theory from 13 April:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=644083&mesg_id=644083

[LiberalFighter]

25. What standards are used in Chinese restaurants in America?

Do they import anything from China that might be dangerous for consumption?

[demo dutch]

Of course!!! I have gotten sick too many times from Chinese restaurants, I make my own now!

[demo dutch]

40. delete

[demo dutch]

41. delete

[Vinca]

26. So how do you know what's tainted and what isn't when the FDA

plays Sgt. Schultz - "I see nothing?" It's now left to the citizens to install laboratories in their homes to find out if their soy sauce is made from HAIR????? This is very upsetting.

[formercia]

28. Deregulation

Works well, doesn't it?

[CountAllVotes]

29. K&R

Hate to be a nag here but check into buying macrobiotic soy sauce. It is known as "Nama Shoyu". The best one is organic and made by "Ohsawa" brand name.

:kick:

[mhatrw]

30. Chicago Tribune: It's Also In Human Food!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-070428food-story,1,7734426.story

WASHINGTON -- The tainted pet food scare, which has swelled into a serious crisis for animal lovers, now has spread to humans. California officials have revealed that the contamination got into the food chain: About 45 state residents ate pork from hogs that consumed animal feed laced with melamine from China. Melamine is used to make plastics, but it also artificially boosts the protein level—and thus the price—of the glutens that go into food.

It was already fatal for some pets: 17 cats and dogs are confirmed dead, more have likely died without being reported, thousands have suffered kidney problems, and 57 brands of cat food and 83 of dog food have been recalled. On top of that, roughly 6,000 hogs will be destroyed because they ate tainted feed. The effects of melamine on people are thought to be minimal, but no one really knows. Its consumption by humans is considered so improbable that no one has even studied it. ...

The FDA is also examining imported vegetable proteins earmarked for human products like pizza, protein bars and baby formula. That investigation, still in its early stages, hasn't uncovered any contaminated ingredients, but the agency, an FDA doctor said, wanted to "get ahead of the curve." ...

Even as the tainted wheat gluten cases have multiplied, the FDA has learned of another problem: Chinese rice protein. U.S. importer Wilbur-Ellis told the agency that a single bag of rice protein that it had imported tested positive for the presence of melamine. Wilbur-Ellis imported the rice from Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. in China's Shandong province. In the U.S., the protein went to five U.S. pet food makers in Utah, New York, Kansas and Missouri. MacIntire said his office is investigating a shipment of rice protein concentrate imported to Illinois and potentially used in a human product.

[NYC]

44. Also chickens in Indiana, already eaten by people.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2829233

...
Chicken feed in some farms in Indiana contained byproducts from pet food manufactured with contaminated wheat gluten imported from China, two federal agencies said Monday.

--
An estimated 30 broiler poultry farms and eight breeder poultry farms in Indiana received contaminated feed in early February and fed it to poultry within days of receiving it, the agencies said. Other farms will probably be identified as having received contaminated feed, they added.

All the broilers believed to have been fed contaminated products have been processed...

Go recommend that thread. People need to know what they are eating.

Soy sauce made from hair.

[Shallah Kali]

46. Tyson was sent an est. 195 hogs who ate the contaminated feed! Article -

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070501/hl_nm/poultry_usda_contamination_dc_3

ast Thursday, USDA said around 6,000 hogs in six states -- California, Kansas, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina and Utah -- may have been given the contaminated feed.

The head of Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest chicken, beef and pork processor, said on Monday an estimated 195 hogs were sent to its pork plant in Nebraska.

"We are working closely with USDA and FDA," Tyson Foods Inc. Chief Executive Richard Bond said in an earnings conference call with analysts.

[NYC]

50. I have pork in the freezer.

They won't tell us where the pork went. They just keep telling us it isn't harmful.

I'll wait.

[Kool Kitty]

31. Kick.

Mandatory reading for everyone.

[lovuian]

35. Its Bioterrorism and Open Trade = Poison trade

sorry when a country intentionally puts plastic in food for profits and oh by the way may poison the West and HA HA who will ever know

Ya this is what Bioterrorism is all about but this is Cheney's buddy and Corporations buddies
so let it be hidden... death is a hard thing to hide

[demo dutch]

37. You have to be an educated consumer. NEVER buy any foods produced outside of you local area! because

Supermarkets buy the cheapest food on the world market, produce etc. because that's where they make the most money. The mark-ups are huge! and it's not just China. For example, you shouldn't buy produce out of season it might come from Latin America or elsewhere. Who knows what the regulations are as far as chemicals etc.
You have to buy local and organic if possible.

[NYC]

45. Buying local wasn't good enough for the people in Indiana.

Go read post #44.

Melamine pet food fed to chickens, then sold to people. Anyone living in that area, buying "local chickens" bought contaminated food.

My "menu" grows smaller every day.

[Shallah Kali]

47. MSNBC Poll: Are you worried about consuming meat since it was announced that hogs and chickens that

Are you worried about consuming meat since it was announced that hogs and chickens that ate tainted feed may have made it into the human food supply?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18405773/

621 responses

Yes. I am cutting pork and chicken out of my diet for the time being.
53%

A little bit. I'm eating less meat, but haven't cut it out entirely.
32%

No. I'm not worried because the government said there is just a "low risk" to humans.
9%

I don't eat meat.
6.3%

[NYC]

51. 53% are cutting pork and chicken from their diets.

The FDA is doing more harm to profits by keeping secrets. In an effort to protect corporations, the FDA is endangering consumers. It seems consumers are, mostly, having the good sense to avoid food that may be contaminated.