Melamine Scare also includes Fish Feed

Melamine Scare also includes Fish Feed



 
May 2007 -   Animal feed contaminated with melamine 
has been fed to fish being raised for market in U.S. aquaculture 
operations, federal food safety officials said Tuesday. The contamination 
of fish feed is in addition to the contamination of chicken and hog feed 
as well as pet food, which has killed thousands of dogs and cats in the 
United States. 
Melamine is an chemical used to produce a fire-resistant plastic with many 
household and industrial applications. 
In addition, testing by U.S. government scientists shows the melamine 
found in animal feed was a contaminant of flour, not of wheat gluten and 
rice protein as authorities had previously believed. 
Dr. David Acheson, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's assistant 
commissioner for food protection, told reporters by teleconference Tuesday 
that the mixup was due to a "misrepresentation" by the Chinese sources of 
the feed additive. 
Dr. David Acheson is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's top food 
protection official. 
"we have discovered that these products, labeled wheat gluten and rice 
protein concentrate, are, we believe, mislabeled, and that they actually 
contain wheat flour that is contaminated with the melamine and 
melamine-related compounds," Dr. Acheson said. 
The Food and Drug Administration, FDA, has identified the Chinese 
supplier, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company, as 
directly involved in the distribution of the contaminated food, Acheson 
said. Another Chinese company, Binzhou Futian Biological Technology, is 
under review. 
China's quality control watchdog announced on Tuesday that these two 
Chinese companies exported melamine-contaminated wheat gluten and rice 
protein. The managers from both companies have been arrested. 
None of the contaminated products have been used as ingredients directly 
in the human food supply, Acheson said, and no new set of ingredients has 
been found. 
"As part of our ongoing tracebacks and trace-forwards, trying to 
understand where this contaminated wheat gluten may have gone," Dr. 
Acheson said, "we learned that a portion of the mislabeled wheat gluten 
from the Chinese firm was sent to Canada and when in Canada was used to 
manufacture fishmeal, and that that fishmeal was then imported back into 
the United States for use in feeding fish in certain industrial 
aquaculture type situations." 

Farmed fish are fed small, nutrient-dense, dry pellets. Different feeds 
are used depending on the life stage of the fish. 
The fish feed was made by Skretting of Vancouver, British Columbia and 
sold by a subsidiary, Bio-Oregon, which specializes in feed for young 
salmon, trout and steelhead. 
Skretting officials said Tuesday, "Although, melamine is not thought to be 
toxic to fish and does not bio-accumulate, Skretting is taking the 
precautionary step of voluntarily recalling all feed related to the batch 
in question." To date, Skretting has received no complaints related to 
unusual fish health issues. 
"We know of a number of firms that received this fishmeal," Acheson said, 
"and our investigators are as we speak getting out there to those firms to 
determine just exactly what they are doing with the fish that were fed 
this fishmeal." 
In testimony today before the House Committee on Agriculture, Dr. Acheson 
tried to reassure legislators that the risk of illness to people who have 
consumed the animals that ate the contaminated feed is very low. 
He said the U.S. government has analyzed the potential human impact of 
processed pork and poultry products that had been affected by the Chinese 
imports and is confident that the food supply in the United States is 
safe. 
"At this point, we have no evidence of harm to humans associated with the 
processed pork and poultry products," said Acheson. He said the 
investigation continues and testing is still going on, and appropriate 
action will be taken if new evidence warrants it. 
A risk assessment completed by five different U.S. agencies found that 
even under the most extreme scenarios, the potential exposure from 
consuming meat from hogs and chickens known to have been fed animal feed 
containing melamine "was about 2,500 times lower than the dose considered 
safe," said Kenneth Petersen, assistant administrator of the Office of 
Field Operation of the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service, who also 
testified. 
The low risk is due to the high dilution of the contaminant, first 
discovered in some pet food in the United States. Some of the pet food 
unknowingly was sent as salvaged feed to various hog, poultry and fish 
farms throughout the country, the Acheson and Petersen said. 
"Melamine was found in only one ingredient of pet food, which was only 
part of the total feed given to some livestock. In addition, melamine and 
its analogs are not known to accumulate in the animals. Finally, those 
animal products are only a small part of the average American diet," 
Acheson said. 
Although no recalls of food for humans were announced in the United States 
after the contamination incidents, some hogs and chickens continue to be 
withheld from processing pending test results and further USDA and FDA 
risk assessments, Petersen told the committee. 
"These imported Chinese products may have been intentionally adulterated 
with melamine," said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, 
a Minnesota Democrat. "This raises serious concerns about the ability of 
our import inspection system to monitor the quality and safety of imports 
that enter our food supply." 

Congressman Collin Peterson of Minnesota chairs the House Agriculture 
Committee 
"The next time tainted food or feed products slip through the very large 
cracks in our import inspection system, we may be forced to confront an 
even more serious situation in terms of animal or human health," he said. 
The committee's Ranking Member Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican 
applauded the FDA's decision to detain all vegetable protein products 
imported from China. "I hope FDA's detention order will send a strong 
signal to the Chinese industry and government that we are serious about 
this issue and will not tolerate violations of our food import standards." 

The melamine scare started March 16 when Ontario-based pet food maker Menu 
Foods recalled some of its products following a rash of animal sickness 
and deaths. Menu recalled hundreds of its wet pet food products for dogs 
and cats manufactured under at least 100 different brand names. 
U.S. importer ChemNutra supplied the mislabeled wheat flour to Menu Foods 
and co-brokered a shipment to Canada, where it was used to make fish food. 

On May 2, Menu Foods expanded the recall to include products which do not 
include the contaminated flour but which were manufactured at any of Menu 
Foods' plants during the period that the contaminated material was used to 
take feed off the market that may have been contaminated during the 
manufacturing process. 
"Menu Foods has received a report from a customer and has received study 
results, both of which indicate cross-contamination," the company said in 
a statement. The recall has cost the company C$45 million to date. 
Speaking to reporters, Dr. Acheson speculated that the manufacturers added 
melamine to the feed in an attempt to boost its nitrogen content. Pet food 
makers measure nitrate content to determine how much protein a feedstock 
contains.    

       
      

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