FDA and Menu Foods are now saying that "Melamine" was found in contaminated foods.

Melamine is an organic compound made of urea. It's used to make plastic dinnerware, cleaning sponges, counter tops, laminate floors. And, apparently, in this recall instance, also used as fertilizer in Asia. Melamine is not used as a fertilizer in the US.

I listened to the press conference by the CEO from Menu Foods stating that they had no processes in place for testing for melamine in the China-sourced gluten which was used in the affected pet foods.

The FDA does not fault them for this either. Seems to me that it's all being laid at the feet of the unnamed China source of the gluten.

This is a HUGE PROBLEM to me as a consumer. They had no procedures in place to determine that contaminants of this nature were not in the gluten?? I'm outraged.They were obviously testing the gluten, but, not for this particular contaminant??

They state that they're changing procedures. Great, close the barn door after you kill all the "horses".

What's gonna happen if there's another contamination from a foreign supplier that uses something for fertilizer or wall paint or floor coverings that's "not allowed" in the United States?? They're not going to have a way of testing for it?? To me, that seems to be the whole flaw in their system.

My Father was a master chemist -- making dyes at a carpet company.

Even I know with my limited knowledge of chemistry that you can do a chemical panel on a product and determine if the product DOES NOT conform to the standards for that product. You might not know what is making the product not conform, but, at least you'd have a preliminary indication that there was a problem LONG BEFORE the months-and-months that it's taken to determine this problem.

Additionally, the CEO did state that they were going to reimburse for "lost" pets and for vet bills.

Now that they know that melamine is the contaminant, it's possible to test animal carcasses, leftover bags of food, and sick animals for the presence of melamine. It wouldn't surprise me that they're going to eventually request this type of documentation before reimbursement. If I'd lost an animal or had a sick animal, I would make sure that the animal were tested for melamine contamination.

Hugs for the room. And prayers for all the sick doggies and sick kitties.

Barb

PS: We need more information from Menu Foods and from the FDA and from the EPA. What happens to this melamine when it passes through an animals digestive tract?? Is it a contaminant to the humans that clean up the feces?? Is it a contaminant and deadly to the wacko dogs that like to eat cat and dog feces?? Does it become airborne?? Does it stay in the environment of a house that had a deceased animal?? A lot more questions for the government and for Menu Foods. We use melamine products in the United States; but, we DO NOT USE it as a pesticide. I'd wonder how this melamine acts in our environment as a pesticide.

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U.S. government finds chemical, but no rat poison, in recalled pet foods
The Associated Press
Published: March 30, 2007

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it gets scarier and scarier doesnt it!
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My kitties are all on organic and natural foods now just like the rest of our family!

That's good to do, organic is the best way to go in this chemically treated world. It is definitely getting scarier by the day.
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What I don't understand is who came up with the suggestion that aminopterin was in the food? Does that mean since they couldn't find it in the food that it is not there or are both aminopterin AND malamine in the recalled food? It just sounds strange, something doesn't click to me. I feel like they are holding off some information from us.

And pretty soon they are supposedly making a recall list of dry foods, from what the news is gossiping about.

It's my understanding just from reading news reports that the aminopterin AND melamine were found, in the samples they tested, by the New York State Food Laboratory and the New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell University. The FDA are the ones, I think, who found the melamine, but didn't find the aminopterin in the samples they tested.

Someone correct me if that's wrong, please.

edited to add more.

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The Cornell Daily Sun
C.U. Helps Identify Poison in Pet Food
By Willimina Bromer
Sun Contributor
Mar 28 2007

says this "The Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell worked in close collaboration with the New York State Food Laboratory to pinpoint the rat poison Aminopterin as the contaminant.

According to Dan Rice, director of the Food Laboratory, the AHDC sent the samples to the food laboratory for specialized testing, which is not conducted at Cornell’s lab."

Edited again: More...

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Scientific American
March 30, 2007
Pick Your Poison: Pet Recall Investigation Turns Up New Contaminant
Chemical used to make plastics is found in recalled food and sick animals
By Nikhil Swaminathan

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I suppose it is possible that the aminopterin was only in some of the
suspected batch.

I recall reading one story, that had a quote from a scientist who was puzzled at the high concentration found in one testing...he said rat bait would not be
sprayed ON the wheat and would be in baits AROUND the storage. How it would appear in high concentration is a puzzle.

I suppose it was scooped up with a loading device? Or planted in there maliciously? or what?

I am beginning to think the only safe folks are the GF ones now. As each day passes, this problem becomes more alarming, and closer to human consumption!

You know I found some information that China was mad at US for sending THEM defective wheat... infected with wheat smut!-- and refused to import.
more at
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