FDA doubts that poisoned wheat gluten is in human food supply.

[pnwmom]

We import foods from a country where aminopterin is widely used, and we rely on this country to test for food safety. And we know we're safe because . . . ?

And what about the Chinese people who may be consuming contaminated wheat?

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news/archives/international/2007325/105483.htm


Because aminopterin is widely used as a rodenticide in China, where Menu Foods gets wheat gluten that is used to make pet "gravy" for some of its pet-food brands, there is some suspicion that country could be the origin of the possible tainted pet food ingredient.

Although the FDA said it hadn't located the exact source of the contamination, they did say they had traced the delivery route of wheat gluten supplied to the Menu Foods plants in Kansas and New Jersey where the contaminated food was produced. Menu continues to produce pet food at the two plants.

FDA officials also said there have been no reports of human sickness in connection with the tainted products.

"We have no reason to believe this chemical has entered the U.S. food supply," said Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/24/us/24petfood.html

Dr. Sundlof said that the gluten involved in the recalled pet food was not used for human consumption and that the F.D.A. had no reason to believe that the substance had entered the human food supply.

He had no information on whether Menu Foods’ suppliers had provided gluten to other companies, but he said the F.D.A. had contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a precaution.

[hedgehog]

1. There is really something about this entire story that doesn't scan.

Somehow veterinarians nationwide spotted the problem because of all the sick animals they are seeing, but supposedly less than 20 animals are reprted to have died. Yet, when Menu Foods tested the same food on its animals, 16% of them died.

[pnwmom]

4. I think the small number refers to the number that died in the study.

Elsewhere, I've seen guess in the hundreds -- but they really have no idea. How usual would it be that an elderly pet gets autopsied? Many many cats and dogs have kidney problems at the end.

[kestrel91316]

30. There are hundreds dead. FDA reporting criteria are too strict

to pick up the majority of cases, sadly. Vets are seeing lots of clinically confirmed cases that lack a package of food with the right code because it got thrown out.

[pnwmom]

33. And how many older pets have died over the last several months

that could have been exposed to this? It's not like we autopsy a 12 year old cat when it dies.

[kestrel91316]

35. Even though my clients for the most part don't feed the foods recalled,

I noticed a distinct up-tick in CHRONIC renal failure cases over the last year or so.

Kinda makes you wonder.

[Kool Kitty]

46. I lost a cat to renal failure in November.

she was approximately 11 years old. (I'm not sure because she was adopted from a shelter and they weren't really too sure how old she was-she lived with us for ten years.) She was fed none of the recalled foods for at least 3 years. (We feed our cats Newman's or Pet Promise.) She took ill and was deceased within a week. We took her to the vet when she stopped and would only drink. I feel so bad for everyone whose has lost or is nursing a sick animal. The loss of Abbey broke our hearts here.

I know it may not be germane to the discussion, but I wanted to mention this because you mentioned in your post that you have seen an uptick in renal problems and failure this year. (And hearing so much about this brings Abbey to mind and I miss her every day.) And thank you for all the info that you provide. I have learned much.

[Faux pas]

2. Like China cares if we're healthy or not? Sure they do.....Not.

"We have no reason to believe this chemical has entered the U.S. food supply," said Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

Duh, okay, we'll take your word for it Stephen.

[pnwmom]

6. The other piece of this is that they don't have a good history of caring

for their OWN people.

If this is on the wheat fields, it's probably affected a large number of Chinese, whether they know it or not.

[Faux pas]

21. Yeah, people seem to be a necessary evil there. Getting to

be one here too it seems.

[pnwmom]

23. So it seems, at least among the "loyal Bushies."

[Faux pas]

26. I know, huh? Maybe they are some special breed of people

who wouldn't be affected by a nuclear holocaust? I'm still all for George Carlin's idea, a bomb that only kills off a-holes.

[Bitwit1234]

3. Why --- why---- why--- are we buying wheat products from China

and they can SAY all they want I don't trust them. I am going to read everything I buy and if it has wheat gluten in it ---no way.....

[pnwmom]

5. They don't necessarily label it -- it might just say "wheat."

And, from what I've read, the aminopterin may actually be used on the wheat fields in China, in which case any exported wheat or wheat gluten could be suspect.

[hedgehog]

7. It's one thing if it's used to treat the seed, we treat much of our seed

stock in this country with chemicals to prevent fungul attack. Treating the seed doesn't poison the eventual crop. We also dye treated seed to ensure it doesn't end up being eaten by man nor beast!

[pnwmom]

12. Well, somehow this stuff got into the actual wheat gluten, not the seeds.

So the question that remains is: where did the rest of the contaminated wheat/wheat gluten go?

[hedgehog]

9. That's a good comment, but check out any package of store bought bread.

This is the tip of a very ugly ice berg.

[pnwmom]

14. Yes, it's VERY hard to avoid wheat gluten. You have to avoid anything

labelled "wheat" or "wheat gluten" -- and one or the other is in most processed foods.

[u4ic]

40. Wheat and/or other gluten also goes by many other names

or can be found in many foods you wouldn't think, for example soy or teriyaki sauce: http://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p_prodid=185&sid=91hH9H1juCj5CC5-49107388052.28

[pnwmom]

43. When the food labelling bill was passed last year, the only reason

it was passed (the Republicans had been fighting it) was because Kennedy reluctantly agreed to take "gluten" out of the list of ingredients that were required to be labelled.

[u4ic]

49. I'm not in the US

so I didn't know about this.

I find that strange - people with celiac can certainly become very sick when exposed to gluten. Why would they refuse to label it? (or did we just find out the reason?)

[kestrel91316]

50. I don't buy wheat gluten in the store. I don't buy bread for the most

part either. What I DO do is buy organic whole wheat flour, and sometimes hard red wheat berries to grind myself, and I make my own bread. It isn't hard. It has a little learning curve, but once you've had your OWN bread you will never go back.

And my "bread machine" consists of my own two hands.

[tavalon]

11. I have celiac sprue

and I laughed out loud at your comment. You have no idea what you're saying! I have to stay away from all wheat gluten and anything that has any wheat flour at all has wheat gluten. Maybe 2-3% of products out there don't have wheat gluten. While your diet can be modified this drastically (I know. I've been on the diet for over 5 years) this is not easy. I think you might want to get educated about what you're saying before you commit to something so drastic. You might also want to get very familiar with Whole Foods and places like it, since you won't be able to shop at your average grocery story anymore.

[pnwmom]

16. Me too, tavalon. And for once I see it as an advantage!

:hi:

[DemBones DemBones]

18. It is indeed a very restricted diet, and

few people seem to know about the problem.

Recently, I read that all children in Italy are screened for celiac disease. I've also read that many cases in the US go undiagnosed for years -- years in which the patients are very sick. Doctors are taught to look for horses, not zebras, when they hear hoofbeats, but I think many stop looking if they can't find the horse, don't think to check for zebras.

[pnwmom]

20. You're right. And if they went to med school when celiac was a zebra,

they don't realize that it's morphed into a horse since then -- the estimates have gone from 1 in 5000 twenty years or so ago, to 1 in 133 today.

[DemBones DemBones]

28. That's very interesting information.

I wonder why it's so much more common. . . What's changed in the past 20 years? People eat more fast food, GMOs are in foods, HFCS is in foods. A, B,C, or D, all of the above, or E, none of the above? Do you have any ideas about it?

[pnwmom]

34. It might not be all that much more common.

They've known for decades that it was common in Ireland and other European countries. It finally dawned on the medical establishment that the descendants of European immigrants might be just as likely to have it as Europeans themselves. And when they did the epidemiological testing, they discovered it was.

On the other hand, there probably has been some degree of a real increase, too -- and I can't help but think that has something to do with the increase in processed foods in our diet -- which almost always contain gluten.

[u4ic]

41. There are fewer wheat varieties

grown now then there once was.

They've also hybridized wheat so that it has a higher gluten content; makes it easier to manufacture baked goods (esp bread).

[pnwmom]

44. I didn't know that wheat had a higher gluten content. Wow.

That would increase the danger of more people becoming gluten intolerant. Great.

[mzmolly]

8. “...we can’t rule out the possibility.”

SUPER!

“We certainly don’t think there are any risks to public health,” he said, “but we can’t rule out the possibility.”

Several lawsuits have been filed against Menu Foods, including a $51 million class-action suit filed in Ontario on Thursday. The company would not comment on the suits.

Dawn Majerczyk of Chicago filed a class-action lawsuit after her cat, Phoenix, died of kidney failure on March 17. “I’m very angry. They killed my cat,” Ms. Majerczyk said. “They used something that kills rats on the street into the food we trusted.”

Goodness, if they can't rule it out what can consumers do to be certain?

Symptoms of exposure in humans include:<11><12>

* nausea
* vomiting
* anorexia
* weight loss
* chills
* fever
* stomatitis – inflammation of the oral mucosa
* pharyngitis – inflammation of the pharynx
* erythematous rashes – red rashes on the skin
* hyperpigmentation – abnormally increased pigmentation
* gastrointestinal hemorrhage
* renal failure – especially in high doses
* abortions in pregnant women

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aminopterin

[pnwmom]

17. Great. Lots of nonspecific symptoms. At least, unlike pets, most

humans don't eat the same foods from the same source every single day.

[mzmolly]

19. Not to mention it's flu season.

:crazy:

[SmokingJacket]

10. Time to check out Urban Homesteading

These folks produced 3 tons of food on 1/5 of an acre, a small city lot:

http://www.pathtofreedom.com/about/urbanhomestead.shtml

They have an advantage in living in California, but it's time more of us started relying on our selves...

[MadMaddie]

13. I agree with you...

I would also like to see the Mega Corporation farms broken up..and the processors of the food too..

The dog food debacle is a warning shot over the bow of the human food production chain.....

How many brands of dog food were effected by this one distributor? If American food is the same then there is trouble ahead....

[Raksha]

47. Wow, thanks for that Path to Freedom link!

That's one of the most inspiring things I've seen in a long time. I just bookmarked it and I'm going to send it to everyone I know. I'm in So. Calif. too, and my lot is also about 1/5 of an acre...

[kestrel91316]

51. Growing as much of our own food as close to home as possible

should be a national security goal.

[blues90]

15. Yeah , I feel so much safer now

As if we should trust the FDA now .

[DemBones DemBones]

22. DB DB doubts FDA has enough info

to make a call on this.

As someone said upthread, WHY are we importing wheat products from China? It's not as if we don't have amber waves of grain here.

[pnwmom]

25. Someone somewhere must have gotten a really good price.

Or a bribe.

[TZ]

29. most likely

Hopefully the FDA will do its job better, and include pet foods which they should be inspecting but aren't.

[pnwmom]

32. I heard somewhere on these boards recently that due to the WTO

agreeements, we now trust our trading partners to handle the safety inspections of the food we import.

So the FDA might not be inspecting our food imports from China.

[TZ]

38. my suspicion is

that the wheat was marked as "not for human consumption" and therefore not inspected. But obviously we will probably never know for sure

[pnwmom]

45. It shouldn't be that hard to find out if the Menu Foods supplier also

supplied gluten to other manufacturers.

[kestrel91316]

31. I think China is the go-to guy for wheat gluten, because they invented it.

They are probably the only ones with jumbo gluten factories that can make enough to sell it cheap enough to appeal to the bottom-feeders in the US (brokers).

[pnwmom]

36. Seriously? I never heard that.

[kestrel91316]

37. I don't know that for an absolute fact, it just seems the most logical explanation.

[KG]

24. with so little oversight and lax rules, how would the FDA know?

[bbgrunt]

27. this whole thing is very suspicious to me.

is it a test run for another kind of false flag attack? How can they possibly say that they have no reason to believe that the substance entered the human food supply if they can't even be sure where it is coming from.

I keep remembering Tommy Thompson's famous words upon leaving HHS--"I'm really surprised that the terrorists haven't attacked our food supplies" or something like that.

[A Simple Game]

39. I think getting the following information would be a good idea!

"He had no information on whether Menu Foods’ suppliers had provided gluten to other companies, but he said the F.D.A. had contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a precaution."

Gee, seems as though a couple of phone calls would be a good idea.

[pnwmom]

42. I agree. When they say they "have no evidence" that shouldn't assure us.

It appears that they have no evidence simply because they haven't bothered to look for it.

[A Simple Game]

48. Yes and not checking should be criminal. n/t