Chemically Green
Dangerous Dairy from China
Got Melamine? Picture Credit:fear_a_gnome
Chinese Food Products (Containing Chinese Milk) and Chinese Milk Products Banned by FDA from Entering the U.S.
China must not think much of its trading partners as the U.S. purchases billions of dollars per year of Chinese goods and food products. Imported foods containing Chinese milk products are hazardous to our health, as we are seeing more and more cases of Melamine in dairy products. Melamine is a hazardous chemical: harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage, eye, skin and respiratory irritant.
MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet for Melamine) Note information printed on top paragraph of MSDS:has been used (illegally) to boost apparent protein content of milk powders.
A chronological list of events leading up to the FDA ban on Chinese dairy and dairy containing products:
September 25, 2008, Washington, DC: Letter sent to FDA from Food and Water Watch. FDA Letter:
As the scope of the contaminated milk scandal in China continues to grow, national consumer group Food & Water Watch today called on the Food and Drug Administration to stop the import of dairy products and milk-derived ingredients from China, and urged food manufacturers to test any milk-derived ingredients they have already purchased.
“It is now clear that China has exported dairy products like powdered milk and milk protein products around the globe and we know that some of them came to the United States,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “This year the United States has already imported 2 million pounds of powdered milk protein ingredients like casein. It is time for FDA to take this issue seriously and stop the import of dairy products from China until this situation is under control.”
“The pet food scandal last year should have taught FDA and U.S. food manufacturers the importance of sourcing ingredients from places with a record of safe production practices,” said Hauter. “The discovery that more than 50,000 children have been made sick from tainted infant formula is yet another tragic example that the Chinese food safety system is not capable of protecting consumers in China or their export markets.”
Read the entire article, Source: Food and Water Watch, NewsRoom
October 17, 2008, Washington, DC (ENS):
Chinese cookies found in Alabama stores have tested positive for high levels of the plastic melamine, triggering a demand from consumer organizations for a federal government ban on all food products from China containing milk proteins.
The recent deaths of four infants and the illnesses of 53,000 other children in China linked with the consumption of infant formula containing melamine have not resulted in a ban in the United States, although individual products, such as White Rabbit candy and Mr. Brown drinks, have been recalled.
The chemical is used in plastics manufacturing and as an illegal additive in foods to simulate protein and it was linked to massive pet food recalls across the United States in 2007.
Two weeks ago the U.S. Food and Drug Administration set “acceptable” levels for melamine in human food, but this measure has not kept contaminated products out of U.S. stores.
On Wednesday, the Alabama Department of Agriculture announced that Koala’s March brand cookies found in Alabama stores have tested positive for melamine with levels that exceed the FDA’s stated safe levels of exposure.
Melamine Tainted Chinese Baby Formula Picture Credit:g-yulongi. More details
FDA Finally Begins Stopping Chinese dairy and dairy-based products from being imported into the U.S.
November 12, 2008, From the FDA, IMPORT ALERT IA9930, Read more here The Food and Drug Administration has begun stopping imports of Chinese dairy and dairy-based products from entering the country in an effort to keep out food contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. The amount of products on the FDA list is mind staggering.
Melamine is the chemical at the heart of the Chinese infant formula scandal that has killed at least two infants and sickened more than 50,000. Scraps of melamine, which is used to make plastic and fertilizer, were added to milk as a way of boosting the milk’s protein content in order to pass quality tests. The same thing was done with wheat gluten, which was then used to make pet food and sparked a wave of recalls last year after thousands of pets died.
FDA officials, who had been spot checking markets for melamine-tainted foods and recalling select products, said they expanded their import advisory in part because of intelligence from overseas counterparts.
Under the hold and test policy initiated Thursday, FDA stops products at the border, then requires the importer to test it and prove it doesn’t have melamine before allowing it to be distributed.
Read the entire article, Source: Washington Post
The Chinese merchants have used an old trick taken from the cattle feed industry. Urea is added to cattle feed to boost the protein analysis when it is quality checked. The urea does not make cattle sick nor does it cause death. Melamine is used in Chinese milk products to boost protein analysis, but has caused sickness and even death in some individuals.
How many people in the U.S. and other parts of the world have become sick from Chinese melamine tainted milk products while thinking that they only had a virus or eaten some spoiled food?
The FDA needs to continue the hold and test policy initiated last Thursday on all Chinese food products from now on. Such policies are the best way to hit China’s pocketbook and hopefully allow China to clean up their act.
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skyy posted on November 18, 2008:
A Gainesville Florida woman has invented an at home melamine test kit! Check this out.
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20081117/news/811171007
chemicallygreen.com posted on November 18, 2008:
@skyy: Thanks for the comment. Looks like we all might have to start testing at home for melamine if the FDA doesn’t inspect close enough