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April 30, 2007

Pet Food? What About Human Food?

Pet food is a bit off topic, but I thought it would be a public service to include this link to an article on the purposeful introduction by Chinese manufacturers of melamine, a coal-based derivative, into the animal food chain. Evidently, melamine tests out as a protein, but costs far less to the seller than the addition of genuine proteins.

What harmful inedible substances have been introduced in China -- purposefully -- into food for the human population?

Chinese manufacturers generally add salt to food sold by weight, wherever possible: preserved fruit is an example. Salt is cheap, and its addition creates a heavier product. Less fruit can thus earn more. A trick of the trade. Salt is, of course, edible and, in fact, necessary in small quantities. So what, right? I guess we can stomach a little more than we need so the seller can make an extra buck (RMB).

Then there's the farmed frozen fish and shrimp originating in China, sold in bulk at the giant discount houses. Farmed salmon flesh dyed bright orange is really cool! "Wild" salmon, caught on the line in Alaska (which you may be able to source at your fishmonger) is naturally pink. Farmed salmon flesh would be grey, but for the dye. Ok, ok, it's probably an FDA-approved dye. But if the dye originates in China and the FDA isn't really watching...

Minor problems in the food chain, you say? Consider the adulterated baby formula which caused many deaths in China. Or the motor oil recently found to have been added to Chinese rice (for the same reason as the addition of salt: weight/additional profit).

Wheat gluten for pet food is the current topic of frightened discussion. But there has been little mention of the wheat gluten sold for human consumption -- generally, one would think, by Chinese and vegetarians outside of China. Surprise, surprise, surprise. It's a filler in many human foods worldwide. Of course, not all of that filler is sourced in China. But how do we know? And what about the Chinese diet itself?

China is one of the top exporters of food stuffs to the world. Do Chinese, eating primarily what is harvested and produced within China, and the rest of the world, who consume Chinese food exports, have something to be seriously concerned about?

UPDATE (May 3, 2007): China Food Mislabeled, U.S. Says

As we cautioned above:

Worried that the contaminant may continue to enter the United States and also seep into the human food supply through food additives, regulators have blocked all Chinese imports of wheat gluten and warned importers to screen nearly every other kind of food and feed additive entering the United States from China, including corn gluten and soy protein.

Last week, the F.D.A. and the Agriculture Department issued a joint warning to consumers saying that melamine has found its way into hog and chicken feed, encouraging producers to destroy the animals, even though there is no clear evidence that consuming meat from the animals is a danger to human health.

UPDATE (May 5, 2007): Counterfeit medicines from China containing toxic substitutes.

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