Put Pork (& Tainted Pet Food?) On Your Fork

The chemically tainted pet food has almost certainly found its way into the human food chain.

And you read it here first, back in March, when almost everyone was minimizing the danger to the human food supply from the tainted gluten. Back when the poison that was killing pets in contaminated pet food was first revealed to be tainted Chinese wheat gluten, this is in fact what I reported and predicted on the show and this blog, as an area of serious concern, and I said I'd keep everyone posted.

Something else: was the toxin added on purpose? I theorized exactly this back in March on the show, though I had no idea what the motive was, but I cut that part, because I wondered if maybe the Chinese government might get it's knickers in a twist and sue the station. We're a community and campus station. We're not made out of money. My suspicions hit the cutting room floor.

And here is the piece I wrote when it was found it wasn't just wheat gluten that was contaminated.

So now there are there are FDA raids and other, er, interesting things happening:

• South Africa has banned Chinese gluten products, in this case the culprit was corn gluten.
  
• China is blocking US investigations by the FDA's food inspectors.
  
• the US FDA has opened a criminal investigation into the tainted food scandal.
  
• Wikipedia has a timeline of the pet food crisis.
  

And melamine and cyanuric acid has been found in the diets of pigs from Kansas and Utah slaughterhouses that ate tainted 'salvage' pet food. These pigs may have entered the food supply. The US has quarantined hogs found to have been fed 'salvaged' contaminated pet food. The quarantined hogs are in California, New York, South Carolina, North Carolina, Utah, Kansas, Oklahoma and Ohio.

Meanwhile, the FDA is refusing to do a pork recall, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Now the big question is: did the toxin-laced pet food find it's way into the diet of any other animals destined for human consumption? Absolutely, is my prediction. Again - I'll keep you posted! I could be wrong. I hope I am! First we have to see if anyone will even test for it. I expect there will be tests by some companies.

But before the vegetarians get too shirty with the omnivores, I urge them, again, take a good look at what you who eschew meat are eating - seitan is made of wheat gluten. Is that gluten tested for safety? Did it come from China? Write and ask the companies that are making your food! Why?

Because other than seitan, many meat substitutes are laced with gluten, as a rule. Some of these may also have have been dosed with melamine to boost apparent protein content. Why would gluten sellers only lace part of the gluten when they could make lots more moolah sell faked-high protein gluten to human food suppliers, too?

Here is an excerpt of some information about the compound at Wikipedia:

On April 19 researchers announced that a "spoke-like crystal" had been found in contaminated rice protein concentrate and the tissues and urine of affected animals. The crystal serves as a biomarker for contamination and is roughly 30% melamine. The remainder has been identified as cyanuric acid, amilorine and amiloride by researchers at the University of Guelph, in Ontario and Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine. The three chemicals are metabolites of melamine, which researchers hypothesized were formed as the animals metabolized the melamine. Other researchers at Michigan State University have confirmed amilorine and amiloride but not the cyanuric acid. At least one researcher believes that cyanuric acid, commonly used in pool chlorination, is the most likely chemical in the contaminated products causing renal failure in the affected animals, although tests in dogs and rats have shown that cyanuric acid is safe.[1] Richard Goldstein of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine hypothesized that the crystallization of melamine and cyanuric acid might cause cyanuric acid to remain in the kidneys for longer periods of time than when cyanuric acid in pool water is accidentally swallowed by people, explaining its apparent increased toxicity in this case. While it remains possible that cyanuric acid was added as a separate contaminant, Goldstein said that it was likely that it was the result of bacterial metabolism of melamine.[2] Cyanuric acid is a known intermediate byproduct of bacterial metabolism of melamine.[3]