We need to examine wheat flour for melamine contamination.

[seafan]

This is expanding beyond the contamination of pet food, hog feed, chicken feed and fish feed.

It involves basic ingredients of our food.

Wheat flour.



From today's Houston Chronicle:

U.S. investigators also have learned that the purported Chinese wheat gluten and a second ingredient, rice protein concentrate, were actually simple wheat flour. The flour was spiked with melamine and related, nitrogen-rich compounds to make it appear more protein rich than it was. In tests, nitrogen levels are measured to gauge the overall protein content of food ingredients.

"What we discovered is these are not wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate but in fact are wheat flour contaminated by melamine," Acheson said.

The FDA is considering enforcement options, he added. The ingredients came from two Chinese firms: Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. and Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd.

I hope like hell someone is going to take control of this.

Notice that today's terror distraction is the New Jersey 6????

[geardaddy]

1. Buy local and organic always!

At least buy local.

[aquart]

2. And if you can't afford it?

Since the people who can't afford organic are also the people who can't afford medical insurance, how much will it cost the states not to ensure the purity of the cheap food?

[geardaddy]

6. I know organic is more expensive, but

you can try to buy as local as you can. Make sure the flour is from locally (as locally grown as you can) grown wheat.

[KoKo]

7. All our flour may be contaminated. How does buying local help

that?

[geardaddy]

8. I thought the post was about flour from China. n/t

[piedmont]

23. Because this thread is all about stirring up Fear! Fear! Fear! nt

[pnwmom]

24. Wheat flour falsely labeled as rice protein is a very serious problem

to anyone with a wheat allergy or gluten sensitivity.

This is not a trivial issue.

[piedmont]

27. Testing rice protein imported from China is perfectly logical.

But testing domestically produced wheat flour because wheat flour was used to counterfeit gluten is silliness. It's like testing all paper because some paper is used to counterfeit dollars.

[pnwmom]

10. More importantly, buy no processed foods.

Otherwise, how do you know that a locally produced food doesn't contain a suspect ingredient?

[geardaddy]

11. Indeed.

We try not to buy processed foods. And when we do we look for suspect ingredients.

[pnwmom]

13. I always have to rely on ingredient labels. But "rice protein" wasn't

something I had to worry about, until now.

This is so frustrating.

[geardaddy]

14. Yeah, I know.

I looked at the ingredients on a Boca burger package and saw wheat gluten. So, I won't be buying veggie burgers for a while.

[liberal N proud]

3. Don't worry about it!

bu$h and his boys have it covered, they will protect the Chinese goods regardless of what is found in the products. The FDA will proclaim no threat for human consumption.

We will never learn that we only get what we pay for, low cost still = cheap product. You have to pay for quality and we will never get quality from China.

[charlie]

4. Now it's in the fish

Farmed fish, the stuff we buy to avoid waterborne pollutants. Swell.

[Shallah Kali]

32. Acutally Farmed Fish is Higher in Mercury, PCBs, etc. Than Wild.

Once a year I will buy a little piece of wild pacific salmon as a special treat when it is on sale because I have read that it has tested lowest for pollution. It is just as well it is so darned expensive so I am not tempted more often because even though it is lower in pollution it is not free of mercury. I don't want to go mad as a hatter one of these days!

[cliss]

5. There's just something really wrong with the picture.

The U.S. is a net exporter of ag products. We grow far more than we can consume. We ship grain (wheat, rice, legumes) to other countries. it's really good stuff.

The US has been called the 'bread basket' of the world, for good reason. I'm in Oregon, and we export WA & OR ag products. They are absolutely superior quality stuff. We have more buyers than we can handle.

Now WHY are importing shit from China? I'd just like to know. this whole situation makes NO sense at all.

= = = = = = = =

Also, I've started growing my own "Crops". I've started growing vegie sprouts. It seems that's about the only thing you can trust any more. It's yummy, super-high nutrition. This is just ridiculous.

[Coyote_Bandit]

17. Why?

Because the US no longer has a manufacturing infrastructure. We export raw goods which are processed or manufactured somewhere else. If this country were to face a real war involving prolonged military conflict we would discover that we could not manufacture our own skivvies and socks - to say nothing of armament and weaponry. Manufacturing and globalization should be national security issues.

Because we are a stupid greedy nation of dumbshits. Corporations exploit workers and consumers and are indifferent to the safety of their products. Managers exploit corporations and their shareholders. Shareholders have no interest other than earning money regardless of the personal or national cost required. Consumers are willing to completely ignore the long term economic impact of their choices in order to save a few pennies. Follow the money. It explains a lot.

Because our government and its leaders are beholding to the interests of corporate Amerika who wine and dine them, finance their campaigns, and offer them lucrative positions when they leave office. Our leaders do not represent the interests of ordinary citizens or work to insure their welfare.

Because we are too lazy to think for ourselves and assume responsibility for our own actions. We've forgotten how to ask questions - and we have no power to demand answers. A little critical thinking would reveal that pursuing the concept of a global economy is not in the interests of ordinary citizens. A little personal responsibility would result in individual decision making rather than an often unconscious response to advertising driven mass marketing efforts.

Because individuals are not willing to make the personal sacrifice required to produce change. We all have to have jobs so we can pay off our credit cards, buy cars and houses and other stuff, take a cushy vacation, put the kiddies through college, provide health care and save for retirement. Rock the boat too hard and you may well find yourself without that job and living on the street.

[cliss]

19. Well, thanks for the update.

So in other words,

We ship good quality stuff overseas (that was obviously OUR grain).
It gets processed in China = something happens to the stuff and it becomes poisoned.

It comes back here & kills thousands of pets and we don't where the rest of the 700 tons is.

Now THAT makes sense.

[Coyote_Bandit]

38. What

we import wasn't necessarily produced here, exported for processing and subsequently imported back. Some of it is produced and processed elsewhere before being re-imported.

Domestic producers export their products to have them processed abroad at lower cost. They then distribute those products - often worldwide. Obviously, they try to maximize their profits and prefer to sell to whoever will pay the highest price.

Importers buy products that have been processed abroad often without any knowledge or assurance as to where the raw goods were produced. Importers also try to maximize their profits. They prefer to buy the cheapest goods that are of an acceptable quality to sell in their market. Margins are such that they make more money selling higher quantities of lower quality goods.

This is a perfect example of one of the flaws of capitalism. Theoretically, we should be benefiting from this arrangement. We should be exporting high quality produce at a premium while importing lower quality goods at a discount. Two problems with that. First, capitalism reduces everything to money and fails to consider the value lost through consumption of lower quality and potentially dangerous products. Second, capitalism fails to adequately consider the friction in the economic system that is imposed because additional handlers with their own profit expectations are required to import and export goods. That cost is shifted it to the consumer - while both exporters and importers realize increased profits.

[Shallah Kali]

35. All too true. If we were blockaded, ran out of fuel for transport, we would be in deep manure

try to find durable goods made in the USA in any store. From furniture to electronics, Clothing to the plates we eat off of. People celebrate the good buys at walmart and the like then complain over the lack of good jobs these days never making the connection between the 50cents less socks made in pakistan and the closing clothing factories here in the US of A.

[pnwmom]

9. So Celiacs are also now at risk from foods labeled as containing rice protein.

In addition to worrying about wheat, barley, rye, oats, etc.

This is infuriating.

[tavalon]

29. Yup

I now have skin in the game.

[KoKo]

12. So...the story changes from Gluten to Flour? Why should we believe this?

Is FDA trying to cover it's tracks on the Gluten by switching it to just a "flour problem?" It would be their pattern. Announce one thing, change it to another and lie and obstruct and obfuscate to throw folks off what's really going on.

The stuff is probably in everything we eat and has been for a long time. We will never be told the truth.

[piedmont]

15. Not really, no.

They doctored flour with melamine to make it seem like wheat gluten, not flour. Flour is just ground wheat and what's sold here is made in this country. Wheat gluten takes more labor-intense manufacturing and lately a lot of what's sold here is made in China.


"We need to examine wheat flour for melamine contamination."

This is like saying that we need to examine all paper because some of it is used to make counterfeit currency.

[seafan]

21. We should be examining imported wheat flour known to be from China.

That is where the inspections and standards are suspect/nonexistent.

Maybe I should have stated that more clearly in the post title.


According to this article, if I'm reading it correctly, the *wheat gluten* and the *rice protein concentrate* were bearing false labels. Both of these were actually adulterated wheat flour.

That sounds as if we are ultimately consuming a contaminated product from China, some of it made into corn meal in Canada, and then sent to the US.


So, yes, we should be looking at the sources and purity of US wheat flour.

[piedmont]

22. We should test ANYTHING edible from China, but that's a different point

The flour was the starting ingredient for counterfeiting gluten. It was sold as gluten, not flour. Why panic about American-produced wheat flour when it was the Chinese-produced fake gluten that was the problem?

By the way, I don't think we import any wheat flour from China, except that which is a component of fake gluten.

[pnwmom]

25. And it's a component of fake rice protein and who knows what else.

I remember reading that they would be testing soy and barley proteins too.

[piedmont]

28. Those are all value-added food products that would be attractive to counterfeiters. Flour is not.

And it's produced here, not in China.

[pnwmom]

30. Right, I hear what you're saying. n/t

[Eurobabe]

16. Gotta wonder if this is why SO many people have FOOD allergies now

Even little kids, babies are getting allergies, it's insane. Something is seriously f'd up with the US food supply.

[Shallah Kali]

34. I have a theory but I am not scientist

when I was diagnosed with milk allergy and celiac disease I read up what as best as I could. some think it is connected to leaky gut. oen is being fed regular food before a certain age means kids have more allergies. their intenstial lineing hasn't built up so instead of being broken down food particals pass though in big pieces. then their bodies decide this substance is the enemy and attack. also lots of antibiotics wear out the lining of the bowel as well kiling off the good bacteria that make up a good part of it leading to leaky gut and again particles can pass not fully broken down.

as for the horrible state of our food I am sure that is part of the reason that so many disease run rampant. constant exposure to chemicals assumed to be safe but never tested and 'safe levels' of dozens every week have to wear things down. and as the vets theorize with the pet food one chemical that isn't immediately fatal combined with a nother that isn't immediately fatal normally can add up to death in days. A few articles mentioned a woman in CA who ate a bite of IAMs every day to get her picky dog to think it was getting human food. after a week both she and the dog were frothing at the mouth and vomiting. I hope both she and the dog made it.

[StarryNite]

18. It was deliberate.

"The flour was spiked with melamine" they put poison in our food supply on purpose. Doesn't that qualify as a terrorist attack on the American people?

[Critters2]

20. "The FDA is considering enforcement options"!!!!

CONSIDERING!!!

[hvn_nbr_2]

26. Tax cuts for food importers!!! Now!!! Voluntary enforcement is the only solution. nt

[Shallah Kali]

36. FDA has little power. Not that they are willing to use it.

meanwhile I am 'considering" if I can afford to (not to mention stand to) live on organic rice and beans.

[seafan]

31. Update from the American Veterinary Medical Association:

Breaking news
May 8, 2007 (3:30 pm CDT)

Mislabeled wheat flour is contaminated, not wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate

The FDA and USDA announced today that wheat flour, mislabeled as wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate, is actually the melamine-contaminated ingredient that has been the focus of a massive pet food recall, not wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate as previously believed.

Levels of melamine in meat products from animals given contaminated feed are very low and pose little risk to humans if eaten, officials reiterated. None of these ingredients has been used in the human food supply.

Also, a portion of the mislabeled "wheat gluten" has been used in the preparation of fish feeds and has been used in some U.S. aquaculture production operations. Officials stated that levels of melamine in affected fish tested so far have been comparable to those found in hogs and chickens.

More information will be posted on the AVMA Web site as soon as it becomes available.

http://www.avma.org/aa/petfoodrecall/breaking_news_0705...

[lovuian]

33. I agree the FDA is sending up smoke screen and

hiding the truth

[Dover]

37. Is this perhaps why wheat allergies have become so commonplace?

An immune response to these ingredients?