Nestle makes blockbuster revelation in melamine scandal - in SA source is melamine laced cattle feed

[Shallah Kali]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/28/1316/0758/894/667293

A blockbuster revelation in the melamine scandal arrived today in the form of a little-noticed statement by the world's largest food company, Nestle, which announced that melamine discovered in its baby formula in South Africa was caused by "contaminated animal feed" fed to dairy animals. In a May 7, 2007 diary, I had warned about such a problem and urged FDA officials to test U.S. milk supplies after melamine was discovered here in corn gluten that is sometimes fed to dairy cows.

Today's news follows an Associated Press report, on Wednesday, that the FDA had found traces of melamine or cyanuric acid had been found in U.S.-produced infant formula, prompting demands for a recall.

*snip*

Prompt Action Needed

Nestle's reported finding of melamine transfer to fresh milk puts pressure on U.S. authorities to test U.S. dairy products for potential melamine contamination. The new finding also raises additional questions about the adequacy of interim risk assessments issued by US food safety officials in 2007 and 2008. Public comments on the most recent assessment will be accepted through January 12, 2009.

Submit written comments to the Division of Dockets
Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane,
rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. Submit electronic comments to
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.regulations.gov.

[elleng]

1. And contact your congresscritters

about cleaning out FDA IMMEDIATELY! They are a hazard to our health.

[Shallah Kali]

2. Remember it has passed from chicken feed into eggs as well in china - link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4322733

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/hongkong/3267344/China-milk-scandal-spreads-to-eggs.html

Meanwhile, Hong Kong has started testing meat and vegetables coming from the mainland. One theory is that the chickens may have eaten feed contaminated with the chemical.

It has also emerged that cyromazine, a derivative of melamine, is widely used in pesticides and animal feed. This could have been absorbed and pass upwards through the food chain.

"As we have found melamine in eggs, we shall also test chicken meat and we shall also look at offal, for example chicken kidneys and pig kidneys," said Mr Chow.

*snip*

The Chinese media has also sought to play down the possibility of toxic eggs. There were no reports of two incidents in Japan and South Korea when eggs laced with melamine were destroyed. South Korea ditched 23 tonnes of egg powder from China on Oct 22 after discovering the chemical.

[Hekate]

3. KnR.

I am so unutterably weary of this.

Hekate

[Ghost Dog]

4. Nice to see Nestle being conscientious,

taking such issues seriously these days, since the original 'baby formula (contaminated water) scandal'. They appear to send teams of scientists wherever there's a perceived problem in the food chain to check it out identify solutions.

[glitch]

5. What are the odds we have another bout of pet food contamination?

Nestle owns Purina, and if after last year's recalls they are STILL getting contaminated product ingredients, and what's worse, ingredients that are now in their BABY FOOD?

I don't think they've learned a damn thing, other than getting their spin out ahead of market catastrophes.

:grr:

[electron_blue]

6. Yes, pet food, and a great deal of people food, I'll wager.

This is really looking like the tip of a melamine iceberg.

[Shallah Kali]

9. Yes now that they are testing different things I wonder where it turns up next - Ensure, Boost,

body building whey protein stuff? Cheese, meat, eggs?

[Atman]

7. I now buy only local, organic milk

I paid 4.79 a HALF-gallon yesterday. But I admit...we're empty nesters now. I don't have kids drinking two gallons a week. It's sad. The people that should most have the organic, non-melamine stuff are the ones least able to afford it.

.

[Shallah Kali]

8. I have been trying to get my Mom to switch to Organic milk

I am paranoid about the probable trace amounts of antibiotics as she is allergic to just about every type now and for all the other reasons to switch to organic. She keeps switching back to a local but not organic brand telling me they wouldn't do anything that bad. Never mind she raves about organic tasting like milk right out of the family cow like when she was a girl. Or that the organic milk stays fresh as long as the best buy date and the other milk barely stays fresh a week.I told her about the melamine in baby formula in SA and she says she is going back to organic. I hope so. She can't afford a totally organic life but I figure at least switching out the foods likeliest to do something awful is better than eating 100% processed chemically adulterated pseudofood.

[Mari333]

10. good lord,milk is in everything

and if its in the feed to cows its in the feed to beef cattle. so that means its in the meat.

[Fireweed247]

11. Could it be the GM foods?

Corn spliced with roundup...corn gluten eaten by cows...

[Shallah Kali]

12. No it is likely the animal feed laced with melamine fed to the animals

GM is a whole other sort of issue.

[Fireweed247]

13. Could GM foods be producing Melamine in the feed

Why would someone lace it purposely?


GM foods have not been tested sufficiently so this could be one of the results.

[Shallah Kali]

14. Melamine is used to make nutrient testing show a false high protein level as w/poisoned petfood

So instead of a high protein level from good quality wheat, corn, rice, soy or milk concentrate it is from adulteration. melamine is dirt cheap which is why it was used in the poisoned pet food and why in China they keep putting it in baby formula. Companies that should have been wary to get such a extra low price jumped on the bargain and made a literal killing.

Also melamine is used in fertilizers to make it slow release which then is often taken up by the plants which we and livestock then eat. From what I gather it sounds like the levels being found are too much for trace amounts in that way but more likely from directly lacing the feed as Nestle thinks happened in South Africa.

[FedUpWithIt All]

15. I have been feeding my baby Good Start for months. I am quite ill over the whole thing.

I breast-fed my three older children with no difficulties. My infant son would simply NOT NURSE. Appointments with lactation consultants from several agencies all came to the conclusion that he was one of the rare ones that likely would have died before grasping the concept of nursing. We tried EVERYTHING. I had small tubes, plastic sheilds...you name it i tried it. I pumped all the while.

The problem with pumping for a child that refuses to nurse is that pumping is not as affective without all the emotional cues of an occasional nursing child. The supply dwindled despite my best efforts and it became more and more difficult to keep up with his growing appetite. We supplemented with Carnation Good Start. After about 5 months i finally gave up pumping the few ounces a day i could manage. The baby went on Good start full time.

Now we find out that there are toxic chemicals in his formula. The FDA tells us that the levels are safe but THEY made a mistake this week and credited the wrong chemical to the wrong company. They MADE A MISTAKE and they want me to trust them with my son's well being. If we switch companies we run the risk of combining the melamine with Cyanuric Acid and causing severe kidney trouble.

My son is 10 months old and too young to be taken off of formula.

We called Carnation. They said it was only the can of liquid formula. We have been using powder. They insisted it was only the one type. We looked through news reports and the FDA website and nothing was conclusive. We felt that we had no choice but to trust Carnation. Then i saw the South Africa contamination problems related to this company. I am not sure what we are going to do now.

I am just really angry and upset.