There is Melamine Tainted Candy, that was not pulled off the shelves!

[trthnd4jstc]

Please Parents Go Through your childrens' candy, and remove the candies that are made in China: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/460.html

[Alpharetta]

1. Do you have a list of the candies?

[Contrary1]

3. Here's another article I found:

"The store shelved are flooded with “fun size” treats in orange and black bags. It’s Halloween season, and candy is certainly on the minds of every kid I know this time of year. It’s on my mind for different reasons.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a voluntary recall notice for the Sherwood Brands Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins. The candy, manufactured in China, is the latest product thought to contain the melamine-contaminated milk powder. The product is primarily distributed through Costco stores in Canada as well as some bulk and discount retailers there.

So far, no illnesses have been reported, and the recall only concerns Canada. Other products that have been recalled in the U.S. and abroad both due to the melamine contaminated milk powder include Mr. Brown’s coffee and milk tea products as well as White Rabbit Creamy Candy. White Rabbit candies were distributed to California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington state through wholesale distributors to retail stores. The White Rabbit Candy recall is the first candy recall issued for products sold in the U.S.

Cadbury also had recall woes in September over some of its chocolate brands that were manufactured in China and distributed in Asia. Even M&M and Mars have had to assess some of their products manufactured in China and distributed in Asia including Chinese-made Oreos, M&Ms and Snickers that were found in Indonesia. Counterfeit products are suspected in this instance. However, South Korea ordered a recall of Mars and Nestle products that were found to also contain melamine.

Most likely, none of these brands will show up in your child’s treat bag, but if you live in Canada, you do need to be aware of the latest recall. For all regions, U.S. included, White Rabbit Candy is one to be sure and look out for."

http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/10/28/melamine-tainted-candy-recall/

On edit: More info

"EUGENE, Ore. - Chocolate coins tainted with melamine were recently recalled in Canada. Officials say they're not found at any U.S. stores but you can buy them online.

These are the coins causing this halloween's biggest scare. They're called "Sherwood's Milk Chocolate Pirate Gold Coins." They're made in China, and some are tainted with melamine.

Melamine is a compound used in plastic which sickened thousands of babies in China this past year, killing several.

According to the FDA, the tainted chocoaltes were not sent to the United States. But there is a chance they still could end up in your kids halloween basket. I found the coins being sold online at several webapages including "bestbulkcandy.com" and "acandystore.com".

More: http://www.kval.com/news/33560574.html

[HCE SuiGeneris]

4. All that powdered milk could find its way into cheese sauces, ice cream, chocolate manufactured in

States, pancake mix, custards,... there really is no end to the list.

I am at a loss for words... the collusion between government and corporations has become deadly.

[Doodler71]

25. K&R - I didn't think about it until this evening when a friend told me

:dem:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. kick

[chknltl]

5. KnR and Thank You (n/t)

[Mabus]

9. Ditto.

K&R. And a big "thank you".

[Alpharetta]

6. I "R"d this thread because I don't trust the FDA any more

I suspect they're political appointees who would give us mad cow disease if the Bush administration pressured them. Or if they were friends of Palin who loved cows as a child.

It is sad I can't trust my own government to just do their frigging job.

[4lbs]

7. The Bush administration along with a GOP Congress cut their funding and removed most of their power.

Now, the FDA, is the regulatory equivalent of a Pro Wrestling referee. Just there for show, and not really powerful enough to stop what's going on.

[1776Forever]

8. If anyone is interested I sent this email last night before this came out on this issue...

OK - I have warned my family before about NutraSweet / Aspartame and how I was told by a Nurse that worked on the initial U.S. Drug Administration test that Rumsfeld (yes that Rumsfeld) conducted back in the 80's http://www.rense.com/general67/rum.htm and how she said to tell everyone I ever met NOT to use it - Now there is this -

China's contaminated food scandal widens - So I am telling everyone I know this - Canada and the US use a lot of Chinese food sources! Check your labels - which doesn't always tell you where all the ingredients came from either but it is a good start! I eat nothing that comes from Canada and certainly not from China AND for that matter Mexico where a lot of the candy (yes, some Hershey's, York Peppermint Patty, etc.) is being made now. If and when they ever get their act together and have real regulations I might consider but right now I do not eat anything from Canada or Mexico and I would encourage you not to either! Let's pray the next Obama Administration does something about this!

.............

China's contaminated food scandal widens
By David Barboza Published: October 31, 2008

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/31/asia/01china-update.php

SHANGHAI: Chinese regulators are widening their investigation into contaminated food amid growing signs that the toxic industrial chemical melamine has leached into the nation's animal feed supplies,
posing health risks to consumers.

The announcement came after food safety tests earlier this week found that eggs produced in three different provinces in China were contaminated with melamine, which is blamed for causing kidney stones and renal failure in infants. The tests have led to recalls of eggs and consumer warnings.

The reports are another serious blow to China's agriculture industry, which is already struggling to cope with its worst food safety scandalin decades after melamine-tainted milk supplies sickened over 50,000
children, caused at least four deaths and led to global recalls of goods produced with Chinese dairy products earlier this fall.

The cases are fueling global concerns about Chinese food. In Hong Kong, food safety officials announced this week that they would begin testing a wider variety of foods for melamine, including vegetables,
flour and meat products. On the mainland, Shanghai and other cities are moving aggressively to test a wide variety of food products for melamine, including fish and livestock feed, according to the
state-run news media, which has in recent days carried multiple reports on melamine in animal feed.

In the United States, worried consumers frantically e-mailed one another on Thursday and Friday about the possibility of melamine-tainted Halloween treats following a spate of news reports that some candies and chocolates made in China or with ingredients sourced in China had tested positive for high levels of melamine or been destroyed in recent weeks as a cautionary measure.

AND this on Canadian as well as US foods:

Chinese ingredients in Canadian-made foods
Sep 26th, 2008

This is one of the best articles I've read on the topic of Chinese ingredients:

Companies that seek cheaper ingredients often land in China.
Canwest News Service
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Byline: Sarah Schmidt
Dateline: OTTAWA
Source: Canwest News Service

OTTAWA - Walk down the baby-food aisle of any grocery store, and parents will be hard-pressed to find jars of pureed citrus fruits without a key ingredient - ascorbic acid - from China.

Shoppers are also likely to find that a portion of some juice concentrate in any finished juice box is from China.

Over in frozen foods, at least one ingredient from China is likely among the dozens packed in many frozen pizzas.

Then there are all the finished products from China - from canned mushrooms to frozen vegetables, from nuts to fish fillets.

As China wrestles with a growing food-safety scandal linked to contaminated milk products, consumers in Canada are faced with a simple fact: in the last decade, China has climbed its way up the importer list, to third spot last year behind the United States and Mexico from 11th spot in 1997.

The quantity of imports of finished goods and ingredients from China has spiraled to 560 million kilograms, worth about $818 million, from about 91 million kilograms totalling about $213 million.

"If it doesn't say, Made in China, you have no idea what Chinese ingredients are in there. You'll never know," said James Morehouse, senior partner at Chicago-based A.T. Kearney and specialist in the Chinese food
industry. "If you go through a supermarket, there's probably China-sourced or India-sourced ingredients in the vast majority of the products."

Read the whole article at this link:

http://thelocavore.ca/?p=33

You have been warned!

[eowyn_of_rohan]

10. Chinese ingredients are used in MANY of the foods we buy here in the USA

When you start googling it gets pretty depressing.

FamilyFarmDefenders.org has an interesting article about imported milk protein concentrate, written two years ago.

Milk Protein Concentrate (MPC)— Consumers Must Be Warned
By Brenda Cochran and Donna Hall, dairy farmers in PA Nov. 2006

...The fact that MPC is a powder that comes from diverse foreign countries makes it impossible to verify its source since it might be mixed together to obtain certain levels of protein, and no one using it wants to certify its origin or its safety or nutritional analysis. Some of the countries sending MPC to the U.S. for use in our food supply include India, Russia, and China, all nations where questionable health issues in the past have included radiation contamination, chemical pollution, and disease factors. India, one of the major exporters of MPC, has free-ranging, garbage-eating water buffalo as a chief source of its milk protein concentrate. Shipment and transhipment can easily hide the fact that MPC originates in foreign countries routinely challenged by outbreaks of Mad Cow Disease, Hoof and Mouth Disease, brucellosis, and many other serious diseases. Don’t count on U.S. Customs to watch out for consumers since less than two percent of any imports is being inspected. Global terrorism underscores the need to maintain safe, domestic milk supplies.


Why is FDA continuing to allow MPC use in our food even after the agency warned Kraft, the biggest user of MPC, to stop using it in their Kraft American Singles? Why are the nation’s largest dairy co-operatives, including Land O’Lakes and Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), also the biggest importers of MPC? This MPC causes a “created surplus” in dairy products that is used to drive down the price farmers receive for domestic milk. The ensuing low milk prices are driving thousands of dairy farmers out of business every year making consumers increasingly dependent on imported dairy products while they are unaware of the problem with MPC in our food supply.

http://www.familyfarmdefenders.org/pmwiki.php/MilkProteinConcentrate/MilkProteinConcentrateMPC-ConsumersMustBeWarned

Adding this- Damn! Our own Wisconsin cheesemakers are using this crap!

Wisconsin dairy cooperatives and other cheese plants will continue to source raw milk from neighboring states as wells as source nonfat dry milk, condensed skim milk and liquid MPC for standardization of milk for cheese making.

By Bob Cropp
Professor Emeritus
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin

[1776Forever]

16. Excellent article - Yes! It is depressing for sure and all in the name of saving MONEY!

Damn it!

[Karenina]

11. Don't eat ANYTHING your great-grandmother

would not recognize as food.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. We've already eaten half our candy!

[CoffeeCat]

13. There were some chocolate coins...

...that were listed as tainted with Melamine.

Last month, I purchased several bags of these coins to hand out for Halloween.

Well, my husband kids and I ended up eating these chocolates. That will teach me to
buy Halloween candy and have it sitting around the house for a month!

Anyway, after eating these chocolates, a month later I see that these chocolate coins
are suspected of having melamine in them. They are the exact same coins we purchased.
However, I have no wrappers left. Nothing.

I bought them at Walgreen's, and they had no idea if they stocked them or sold them.
I purchased them on clearance for 25 cents, so they were obviously getting rid of
them and probably not ordering any more.

We aren't sick. I'm not sure if the candy wasn't tainted or if we needed to ingest
more to have a negative effect.

It's very bizarre to have this hit so close to home.

[Blue Diadem]

14. Did anyone catch this article the other day? A rise of kidney stones seen in US children

They're giving other reasons for the kidney stones, mostly salt as the reason, but I thought this was strange timing considering the melamine issues in China. I no longer trust our food supply.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/health/28kidn.html?_r=2&em&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[1776Forever]

17. Thank you for posting! This is very distrubing!

[mzmolly]

20. I was just thinking the same thing.

Coincidence? NOT!

[chknltl]

15. Dog Food?????

What about our pet foods? My aging Pit-Bull is 11. She has gone down hill in a dramatic rapid fashion. 2 months ago she had a 'gangway' attitude. I'd take her out to the local Frisbe Golf course and she would bowl me over gettin out of the truck and she'd spend the hour or so racin from tree to tree. 2 months ago she seemed fine, healthy and energetic. Today she is showing signs of kidney failure, she drinks water at a rate easily ten times higher than normal, she has no energy, limps around like she has arthritis and has to be lifted into my truck! The disc golf course is no longer an option because she tires quickly and can hardly keep up with me on a gentle walk from t-pad to t-pad!

We took her to the vet when the symptoms first started, he checked her for diabetes, found and removed a small tumor on her belly, he found no diabetes and the small tumor was not a problem. I asked then about the possibility of tainted dog food or biscuits and he knew of none currently. The Vet is mystified but recommended that due to the dogs age it would not be wise financially to go lookin for something that may be incurable.

Yes my dog is getting old-likely not long for this world but that is not what my point is in posting this. I have heard of another dog in our area with these exact same symptoms who died last week of kidney failure. In both cases the dog was elderly and in both cases the symptoms came on alarmingly fast. (The owner, I am told spent over $2000 on tests but it was only the autopsy that revealed the kidney failure) I have been wondering strongly if it is something I am feeding her-I am now wondering if she has somehow gotten tainted dog-food or eaten a tainted doggie biscuit!

No-I do NOT know of yet another pet-food threat emanating from China like we had about a year ago. The fact that there WAS pet food tainted by a Chinese product back then AND kidney failure is a current symptom linked to food tainted once again from China coupled with the 2 dogs in my area who exhibited kidney failure symptoms which came on rapidly...well I hope you see what prompts me to post these observations.

[1776Forever]

18. Sorry to hear that! My little Pug died 2 years ago. I think the food caused it but it was ealier

then the case that just ended for reimbursement allowed. I don't think anything humans or animals eat is not in danger of being poisoned with melamine!

.....................

FDA fiddles while melamine threat grows

By Christie Keith

September 28, 2008

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2008/09/28/fda-fiddles-while-melamine-threat-grows/

I was catching up on the weekend in politics over on Daily Kos, when a diary about melamine caught my eye. It only mentions the pet food recall in passing, and is otherwise concerned primarily with the human food threat posed by melamine in milk-derived Chinese products, including infant formula (blogged about earlier by Gina, here and here). Still, it all sounded so very familiar to those of us who went through last year’s pet food crisis, I thought I’d share it with you.

The diarist writes under the name Deep Harm (and yes, I have a problem with anonymous bloggers) and says the FDA recently announced it was broadening its testing of Chinese imported foods:

FDA does not explain how it “broadened” its domestic and import sampling and testing. Does that mean broadened to include testing for melamine? If so, when, exactly, did it begin testing for melamine? On September 20? If so, that is hardly a “proactive” response, given that the Chinese crisis had been in the headlines for weeks. FDA’s only action prior to that was to look for the specific brand of Chinese formula first reported as contaminated and to assure Americans that the formula is not sold in the U.S. Apparently, FDA officials learned nothing from the pet food contamination crisis, where the list of affected products grew weekly.

It’s highly problematic that the FDA is looking only at products that could contain milk-derived ingredients from “Chinese sources.” That leaves Americans vulnerable to products produced in other countries that may have used Chinese ingredients without declaring them; and there are a mind-boggling number of food products containing “whole milk powder, non-fat milk powder, whey powder, lactose powder, and casein.”

Good luck finding any of that out from FDA. I used to say stuff like, “If this was in baby food, they’d be taking it more seriously.” It turns out I was wrong.

The full diary is here -

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/28/85823/9791/589/612680

but be warned: it will make your head explode. Although I think it’s worth it to see this diarist suggest that anyone from FDA, USDA and CDC “involved in making the reckless ‘interim’ risk assessment, which clearly was inadequate and not based on sound science, should be fired and forced to return to taxpayers any bonuses they received for work on that project.”

[chknltl]

26. Thank you very much for this response 1776Forever

(cool name btw). I just now noticed this response by you many hours after your posting-sorry I wish I could have seen it much sooner.

Hugs for your Little Pug! Why oh why do these creatures attach themselves so strongly to our hearts?
I've lost many furry friends over the years-I swear it gets harder each time. It is 3:30AM here and waaaay past my bedtime but I'll spend a moment checking out the link because it sounds like it may be relevant to my query, (oh and because you were kind enough to go to the trouble of providing it for me...)

Utterly unrelated to our topic 1776Forever BUT germain to the OP of this thread is a post I found at your link. I think this lady has a DAMNED GREAT notion regarded tainted food in America so I'm posting it here and re-posting your link too:


Comment by Annie — September 30, 2008 @ 7:32 about midway in a thread at this link:
http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2008/09/28/fda-fiddle...

quote:
What we need in this country is for a group of retired chemists and microbiologists to form a product/ingredient testing organization to be run for the benefit of people who can’t afford to pay for expensive testing of suspect pet and human food items. Incorporated as a nonprofit, public service 501 C (3) charitable organization they could donate their time and expertise to perform the tests. Companies that use chemical and microbiological assay equipment could donate older model equipment as a tax writeoff. Cash-strapped, commercial property construction companies, overloaded with unsold, vacant warehouse/business properties, could similarly donate use of a vacant building, as could manufacturers of lab consumables (chemicals, reagents, labware, etc.) and computer gear. John Q Public would then have a source of affordable/low cost testing for any and all ingestable foods, additives, preservatives, nutriceuticals, etc. they felt were suspect. My bet - it would become rapidly apparent that the things we and our pets ingest are widely contaminated, not only with melamine, but with a whole litany of other dangerous materials that the FDA should have been protecting us from all along.

If someone could pull this off, and find a statistically significant cross-section of contaminated/adulterated products on US shelves, it just might finally be possible to light a big enough fire under American citizens that they’d wake up and DEMAND change.

Yeah . . . I know . . . dream on. But think how many baby boomers with the requisite skills are retiring every day and might be willing and able, if not anxious, to contribute their expertise! As a retired baby boomer who’s heavily involved in a variety of animal rescue organizations, I can tell you there’s an ever-increasing pool of volunteers with an amazing cross-section of skills/expertise out there waiting to be tapped. And, as we all know, in the U.S. if you want something done, you’ve got to do it yourself. There’s not a government agency left with the funding, personnel and leadership required to carry out its designated functions.

Now somebody please, please tell me this organization already exists and how/where to send samples for testing!"
end-quote

WOW what a notion!!!! I'd donate to that! I wonder if something like this COULD be started without the FDA bullying it somehow...

Thank you for the link, I ended up spending more time than I expected over there, you are right that it didn't address my question so much but it IS damned fascinating. Now I too am wondering about melamine contamination from China in our food. Always in the back of my mind is the thought that the FDA may be corrupted with bush appointees in key positions-NO, I do not KNOW this to be the case but it would NOT surprise me! If that IS the case then our food is likely far more suspect than I had thought before AND our pet food issues may not have gotten resolved as much as we would like either! It's been a year ago but I seem to recall that the melamine that was in our pet food back then had a contaminant from paint which was traced to a single manufacturing plant or warehouse and that Chinese company got shut down by the Chinese government...Sorry, I've only a faded memory and no links but I've thought since then that the matter had been cleared up. Perhaps there IS more to the tale than what little I remember-perhaps more that the FDA chooses to not let us know about.-(just speculation that). It's now 4:15AM, I'm asleep at the wheel here gonna have to research this more later. Thank you again for the link 1776Forever
c

[1776Forever]

27. You are right on about Bush's deep caverns into the heart of the FDA - link.....

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush_administration_cronyism_and_incompetence

From SourceWatch:

Food and Drug Administration: "Serious questions have been raised about the agency's coziness with drug companies, and the agency's top official in charge of women's health issues resigned over the delay in approving Plan B, the morning-after pill, accusing the agency's head of overruling the professional staff on political grounds."

(snip - from the same page)

"Grand Incompetence Party"

"No one -- no one -- can name a single front on which today's Republicans have shown even the simplest competence. They don't know how to manage an economy. They sure don't know how to balance a budget. They have no idea how to create jobs (though they do have a pretty strong sense of how to make them disappear). Their domestic-security measures have consisted of the usual emphasis on show over substance, first stealing a Democratic idea (the Department of Homeland Security) and then underfunding the result in some crucial respects -- a mistake for which I pray we never pay a price," Michael Tomasky wrote in The American Prospect, August 27, 2003.

"They don't understand the Bill of Rights, and their shills in the media obviously don't understand the relationship between the First Amendment and trademark law, as Blah-Blah O'Reilly's laughable lawsuit against the great Al Franken shows. They've done nothing to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink, and have, if anything, done damage to those resources. They've done nothing for the minorities Mr. Compassionate Conservative was supposedly courting in 2000, his speeches to the NAACP and the like transcribed by a tremulous media," Tomasky said.

"And now, it turns out, they don't know how to do the one thing they've spent 50 years convincing Americans that they and only they know how to do: fight a war."

"And, of course," Tomasky wrote, "there are wealthy interests who keep the party alive financially and who must be rewarded on all possible fronts. This, actually, is the one service Republicans do perform competently. They make damn sure of that."

..........

I love your idea from Annie - please post this as a thread. It is an awesome idea!

Blessings & hugs to your pet chknltl.

[bluesmail]

19. I don't have any 'faith' in any government levels.

I even pay for brand prescriptions. And I have no idea if they are safe or not. Okay. Head Hurts.

[OhioChick]

21. What the hell are gov't agencies good for

when they can't even pull poisonous candy off of the shelves? :eyes:

[Tindalos]

22. On the up side, I'm eating more vegetables these days.

I guess that's good. Until they find melamine in the carrots.

[mzmolly]

23. A generous neighbor gave my child a $2.99 piece of candy

much like the one pictured in the video. I saw the "made in china" label and threw it out, almost immediately. :(

[Hannah Bell]

24. china makes a lot of things. for example, 80% of the world's vitamin C.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0720/p01s01-woap.html

"China's grip on key food additive

Vitamin C prices have spiked this year. China controls 80 percent of the market."