FDA says melamine may be harmful after all

[Therese]

FDA says melamine may be harmful after all...to FDA employees at least.


First take a look at this, from the FDA on May 9…

    Washington — There is no evidence linking human illness to certain Chinese food  imports tainted with melamine or melamine-related products, U.S. officials say.

But yet Itchmo has found documentation that the FDA is concerned about melamine. An FDA surveillance order dated May 1 (before the May 9 statement), says that chronic exposure may cause cancer, and cautions pregnant women about their exposure to the substance.

Let me get this straight…if you’re an FDA employee melamine may be harmful, but if you’re not an FDA employee there’s nothing to worry about? So…does that mean I can eat all the melamine tainted food I want as long as I don’t get a job with the FDA?

[Davis]

FDA says melamine may be harmful after all...to FDA employees at least.
Washington — There is no evidence linking human illness to certain Chinese food  imports tainted with melamine or melamine-related products, U.S. officials say.

Yes, and according to them, the evidence only shows 16 pets have died due to the tainted food. Evidence or lack of it, as they calculate it, is meaningless.

But yet Itchmo has found documentation that the FDA is concerned about melamine. An FDA surveillance order dated May 1 (before the May 9 statement), says that chronic exposure may cause cancer, and cautions pregnant women about their exposure to the substance.

Of course. They cannot possible know for certain how harmful these things might be. They allow all kinds of things in our food, which are considered "acceptable at certain levels", even though they are deadly toxins and it is doubtful they really know where to draw the line. There will never be any way to prove that the illnesses people suffer from may be due to the continuous ingestion of harmful substances in our food. There is no way to link the two together. They can wash their hands of it because of that.

Let me get this straight…if you’re an FDA employee melamine may be harmful, but if you’re not an FDA employee there’s nothing to worry about? So…does that mean I can eat all the melamine tainted food I want as long as I don’t get a job with the FDA?

Apparently we are immune and they are not. Hmmm, isn't that interesting? Something's horribly rotten. Who in their right mind would trust them or anything they tell us?

[snarlah]

I think that you have that just about right.  I am concerned that pork and chicken may both be tainted by melamine and I am afraid to eat either right now.  The FDA may have been a good organization once, although it never had enough money or personnel to do the whole job right, but now you can assume that the FDA is about as useful as FEMA after a hurricane hits New Orleans.   

[Davis]

I wonder where all that pork and chicken will go if it has been cleared as safe.  Most likely, some of it will go into pet foods, and even if they have cleared it as safe for humans (which is questionable), how do we know that those levels in the meat are safe for pets?  They may be more sensitive to it than humans.

No, the FDA does not have enough money or personnel, but that is because the money goes where the government thinks it is most important, which is the whole problem.  In my opinion, nothing is more important than our food supply, but apparently they do not think so.  Instead, food is the place where they scrimp.  Unbelievable!

[Cindy Nevarez]

The pork I don't know about, but I understood that the chicken had already made it into the food supply back in Feb.

[Davis]

Yes, I know, but I assume we are not just talking about the human food supply, but pet food as well. And some of it has been cleared since (I think?). Is it now going to be considered more suitable for pet food?  Ugh!  I've just come to expect that sort of thing I guess. 
 

[Cindy Nevarez]

No..I understand what you mean!

When we first heard about it here....we were all talking about it. Maybe you were out of town?

Anyway, yes, it's in the pet food too, unless they are using organic or kosher chicken. I buy Foster Farms for my kids, and I already verified with them that they didn't purchase any of that chicken.

[Davis]

Ha, are you kidding?  I've been out of town for years!   Seriously though, I do remember the talk, but don't remember if we ever confirmed that it went into pet food, and WHICH foods it went into.  We'll probably never know.  Foster Farms swears by their standards, so that's a good choice for you and your kids.  I'm just more worried about the chicken that's in my cat's food.

[Cindy Nevarez]

Yeah, an actual "confirmation" was never achieved, but that we know the biggest chicken companies (Perdue/Tyson) got the tainted ones, and if you know that your pet food company gets their chicken from them, then I think that could be a 'confirmation.'

[Davis]

Thanks for the heads-up on the chicken companies.