The USDA and FDA announced today that meat from hogs fed melamine-tainted “salvaged” pet food would not be approved for human consumption, indirectly raising the specter of a much wider contamination of the nation’s pork and chicken supply.
WASHINGTON, April 26, 2007 – The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today notified State authorities that swine fed adulterated product will not be approved to enter the food supply. […] Because the animal feed in question was adulterated, USDA cannot rule out the possibility that food produced from animals fed this product could also be adulterated. Therefore, USDA cannot place the mark of inspection on food produced from these animals.
Approximately 6,000 hogs from eight pork producers in California, Kansas, North Carolina, New York, Oklahoma and South Carolina are under state quarantine or are voluntarily being held by producers. The USDA is offering to compensate producers who euthanize swine, and to provide assistance in carrying out “depopulation” and disposal.
While the USDA’s actions impact only a tiny fraction of the 100 million hogs slaughtered annually, the 6,000 affected hogs represent only those traced to a single batch of salvaged pet food made from contaminated rice protein concentrate imported by Wilbur-Ellis during the week of April 2, 2007. During a conference call with reporters this afternoon, FDA Office of Enforcement Director, Captain David Elder would not rule out wider adulteration from earlier batches of melamine-tainted, salvaged pet food.
“We are still tracking salvaged pet food from other manufacturers,” Captain Elder told reporters.
A spokesperson for Diamond Pet Foods, the source of the salvaged pet food eaten by the 6,000 adulterated hogs, explained that “it is a common regulated practice for animal food facilities to provide salvage product to farms with non-ruminant animals.” For example, at Diamond, food mixture from the beginning of each production run is routinely sold as salvage because it is “too high in moisture content to run through the manufacturing process.”
Assuming that Menu Foods, Purina and Del Monte also sold salvaged food as livestock feed, the number of affected swine and chickens could increase exponentially. Menu Foods alone manufactures hundreds of different recipes at its three facilities, and has recalled over 60 million cans and pouches manufactured from November 8, 2006 through March 6, 2007. Menu Foods would not make itself available for comment, but if it follows practices standard at other manufacturers, salvage from its multiple production runs could have contaminated feed fed to hundreds of thousands of animals over a four-month period. Much of the resulting adulterated pork and chicken would have already made it to supermarket shelves before news of the first round of pet food recalls broke on March 16.
While the FDA and USDA continue to downplay the risk of melamine exposure in humans, they are obviously concerned enough to compensate farmers to destroy thousands of affected pigs. FDA Chief Medical Officer, Dr. David Acheson voiced particular concern over how melamine and other related, contaminating compounds such as cyanuric acid might interact: “This mixture may be more toxic than melamine alone.”
With no prior studies of the toxicity of ingested melamine in humans, the exact danger is unknown, but with no established safe level of melamine and related compounds, it seems likely that recalls, quarantines and other precautionary actions will continue to expand.
Thank the good Lord that the Republican appointed folks are still in charge over at the FDA. I feel certain that they will stand up to the God-less corporations and protect our health even if it costs these corporations profits. The FDA will do it because it’s the Christian thing to do.
ReverandMoney@1 You missed an HTML tag:
(IRONY TAG)Thank the good Lord that the Republican appointed folks are still in charge over at the FDA. I feel certain that they will stand up to the God-less corporations and protect our health even if it costs these corporations profits. The FDA will do it because it’s the Christian thing to do. (IRONY TAG)
There, I fixed it for you. . . . .
Goodness, you Moonbat!s are morons:
Dr David Acheson – Dr. Acheson relocated his laboratory to the University of Maryland Medical School in Baltimore, Md., to continue research on foodborne pathogens. In addition to his academic career as a researcher, he also served as Senior Food Safety Scientist for the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service from 2000-2001 and as their Chief Medical Officer from 2001-2002. In September 2002, Dr. Acheson joined FDA as the Chief Medical Officer for CFSAN.”
He was hired as a government worker before GWB came to power!
You Moonbat!tic Fascists forgot this one didn’t you:
http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2.....lman2.html
Dr. Stephen B. Fredd
Still in the FDA from the 90s.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/f.....wanted=all
Rant on Moronic Moonbat!s.
As ChristmasGhost said which was lost on your Stuuuuuuuuuuuuuuupiiidddddddd minds, some of these are career people who don’t change from administration to administration. They just promote one who happens to bend to their politics for head jobs and replace them with someone else still from the FDA.
Some of these FDA people are dinosaurs
http://www.fdaaa.org/
That won’t stop the Moonbat!tic rants though!
Ok, so if I understood correctly, melamine is a plant fertilizer. Is it safe to eat plants fertilized with melamine, or not?
So Pudwhacker, must be nice to trust the government. The government would never delay a decision based on political concern or dollars.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Apparently I am cynical. I apologize.
The government is here to protect me from/ The government is here to protect me. The government is here…….
Who said I trusted the government Left Foot for my food? I mentioned to all your idiot moronic Moonbat! friends that at least half these FDA people are career people who don’t care about anything except their careers!
Voice of Chalk Scratching should be after the people too.
8 Yeah…and just like the career professionals all through the government, they’re being hounded half to death by the BushCo appointed cronies who sign their paychecks.
10 Methinks we’re going to be hearing from some of the people I mentioned in 9, above, now that they can speak openly to the folks in Congress.
HEY PUDDYSTUPID. THE CHIMPANZEE YOU VOTED FOR TWICE ALONG WITH HIS RUBBERSTAMP WORSHIPPERS IN CONGRESS HAS RELENTLESSLY CUT THE FDA’S BUDGET.
THE POLITICAL APPOINTEES HAVE DONE THE REST.
ANY HEARINGS ON FDA SCREWUPS DURING THE RUBBERSTAMP STUPID YEARS?
DIDN’T THINK SO.
AND CHRISTMASGHOST, A RIGHT-WING EXECUTIVE OF A BIOTECH OUTFIT IS HARDLY AN OBJECTIVE SOURCE OF INFORMATION.
Clueless: Yes there have. Google it yourself Clueless. You’ll learn something. Show us how smart you are!
Clueless: Ask GBS what type of eater I am. You keep eating the sludge!
ArtFart: You be talking about the White House Travel Office again?
Maybe ArtFart is talking about the misappropriated 900 FBI files?
Puddybud can’t win any arguments here, so he resorts to name calling.
How pathetic.
Yes , Pud. The whole nation is going to blame Democrats for what Bushco is responsible for.(irony tag)
It was Nixon who opened up this whole Pandora san Box.
The reminded me of The Meatrix.
http://www.themeatrix.com/
Ask GBS what type of eater I am.
SO YOU DON’T TOUCH THE PORK OR THE SHELLFISH.. WHAT A MAN OF VIRTUE YOU ARE! YOU EVER LET COTTON/POLYESTER TOUCH YOUR SKIN?
BUT NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT. YOU WERE SPEWING ABOUT SHERYL CROW THE OTHER DAY. OH LORDEE! SHE LAID A HAND ON THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS! THERE’S HELL TO PAY FOR THAT!
SO OUT OF ROVE’S ASS THROUGH MATT DRUDGE’S (SLUDGE’S) TOILET RIGHT ON TO YOUR BREAKFAST PLATE!!!
HOW MANY COMMENTS ABOUT CROW?
LMAO!!!
HEY PUDDY! EVER THROW THE PIGSKIN?
LMAO!!!
HEY PUDDY!! I READ THAT SCIENTISTS FOUND THE FOSSILIZED REMAINS OF AN ANCIENT RAIN FOREST IN AN ILLINOIS COAL MINE.
THE SCIENTISTS SAY IT’S OVER THREE HUNDRED MILLION YEARS OLD BUT YOU KNOW THAT’S BULLSHIT.
THAT FOREST WAS FOSSILIZED IN THE GREAT FLOOD THAT CARRIED NOAH’S ARK 6K YEARS AGO GIVE OR TAKE!!
LMAO!!!
Scary Poonbrain: Name calling? Yes you are a moron.
Besides Scary Poonbrain – Your alter ego Headlice Loocie?
14 Travel Office? Now, that’s the Deptartment of “Defense”…they’ve sent a shitload of Americans on a nice all-expenses-paid vacation in Hell on Earth.
14 No, I was thinking about 10,000 deleted emails…in a system whose very existence breaks the law.
Oh…and before you go all the way to talking about blow jobs…we’re all still wondering what else Jeff Guckert’s doing around the White House.
I was not discussing hummers, you did.
Pet food recall. The FDA and the USDA were lobbied in Washington to prevent changes in pet food labeling, about the imports/exports of ingredients, and what’s in the ingredients. The lobbyists were hired by Purina Petcare, and others. This was no accident. There’s much more to this story. sopr.senate.gov Just follow the money.
Cheryl: Interesting Site. But this is a DB (database for libtards) search. We already know the outcome when Moonbat!s perform DB searches. Unions, Joins and Intersections are lost on them like Venn Diagrams are lost on 2nd graders!
Clueless: Yes Clueless I did throw the pigskin. It’s what you eat STUPID.
Again, still Clueless and a LOSER!
You know Clueless when you crap you need to wipe up right? Well what is it in the toilet bowl? Something Clueless right?
NUFF Said!
Well what is it in the toilet bowl?
AS I SAID TO THAT OLD NUTCASE MWS, YOUR READING COMPREHENSION SUCKS!!!
I’LL SLOW IT DOWN FOR YOU PUDDY. OUT OF ROVE’S ASS, THROUGH MATT DRUDGE/SLUDGE’S TOILET…
ON TO YOUR BREAKFAST PLATE — FOR YOUR REGURGITATION AT HA.ORG.
IT’S THAT SIMPLE PUDDY. YOUR MISSION IN LIFE IS TO REPEAT THE RIGHT-WING CRAPOLA.
OH WAIT MINUTE. YOU AND MWS ARE THE SAME GUY!!!
LMAO!!!
Clueless, wow you tried to make a funny. NOT.
More than half the stuff I post is from MSM. You post from Kos! Plain and simple!
27 Venn diagrams? Ah…Puddy must have woke up once in 7th-grade math class.
puddy @3,4,5…… here is a classic example of who is working for the FDA as a SCIENTIST:
yup…you guessed it, a complete turkey that we fired because he was a complete idiot.he was hired during the clinton admin. and i haven’t trusted the FDA ,AT ALL, since. i never had much faith in them because ,as i said before, familiarity breeds contempt and all that.
the FDA is an organization where bureaucracy trumps science every damn day.
yos idioto……..”AND CHRISTMASGHOST, A RIGHT-WING EXECUTIVE OF A BIOTECH OUTFIT IS HARDLY AN OBJECTIVE SOURCE OF INFORMATION.”
and why would that be? why don’t you explain it to us all, hmm?
and cheryl@26…….you are right on the money with your comment about lobbyists. why should corporations have a VOTE? [and that’s what it is kids….]
you libs want to clean up the government? get rid of the lobbyists…….
ArtFart: One Moonbat knows Venn Diagrams? Typical!
Oh Clueless@30: What are you NUTS? Don’t answer that we already know the answer is yes!
Oh Clueless@30: Now it’s established your NUTs let me give your the evidence.
“OUT OF ROVE’S ASS, THROUGH MATT DRUDGE/SLUDGE’S TOILET…”
So you are saying Rove put Sheryl Crow to the single sheet of hole paper so Matt Drudge could post it?
Waaaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR!
Still stupid and still a LOSER!
erratum “…you’re NUTs…”
http://www.usatoday.com/money/.....usat_N.htm
Inspectors are now allowed to detain vegetable-protein imports from China because they may contain the chemical melamine. Melamine, used in the manufacture of plastics, was found in the wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate that has led to the recall of 5,300 pet food products.
Melamine’s effects on humans, if ingested, is unclear. In fact, the chemical has not been found in earlier tests to be highly toxic, a fact that has scientists looking for second chemical agent that could be increasing its toxicity.
http://www.iht.com/articles/20.....30food.php By David Barboza and Alexei Barrionuevo
Published: April 29, 2007
ZHANGQIU, China: 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.
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.
Classic liberal censorship screamming about free speech. you deleted my comment. It was as complementary to sociAlists as your are to conservatives.