I just watched the 11 o’clock news on CBS2 in Los Angeles, and unfortunately found answers to the hog farm questions I posed in my earlier post tonight. I tell ya, if this excerpt won’t get you to read the entire story, and sit up and take notice that this situation is NOT just an issue for those with pets, I don’t know what will.
“State officials believe the melamine came from rice protein concentrate imported from China by Diamond Pet Food’s Lathrop facility, which produces products under the Natural Balance brand and sold salvage pet food to the farm for pig feed.”
If this melamine contamination of wheat gluten, rice protein, and corn gluten, has not directly entered the human food system already, this story is an indication of how it can make its way there indirectly. Tip of the iceberg, people, tip of the iceberg. I also find it quite bothersome to discover that this is what is happening with the recalled food: being sold as “salvaged” food. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
(4/20-Updated story here.)
6 comments
Comments feed for this article
April 20, 2007 at 7:38 am
annette bailey
Alot of the lower quality pet food was slow poison to begin with. It may have ended up in the human food chain. who knows.
Very frightening.
April 20, 2007 at 1:26 pm
More on melamine contamination « Nuke’s NEWS & VIEWS
[...] Also blogging: SouCalmuchacha [...]
April 21, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Tami Tanaka
Why doesn’t someone from the FDA make a list of “SAFE” pet foods….I’ve called Friskies, Nine Lives and Fancy Feast and they guaranteed me that they were safe…I shop at BJ’s and I just received a letter from Petrapport that they were recalling pig ears.(a month after they were recalled)…No one contacted us from BJ’s, even though they know that we purchase over 20 bags a year…Make a list of “SAFE” products…or is it that none of the companies are not really confident about their product.
April 21, 2007 at 4:23 pm
SoCalMuchacha
UGH, that frustrates me so much about your situation with Petrapport, Tami, especially since the FDA had issued a “health alert” about those pig ear dog treats TWELVE days before they were FINALLY recalled! And not everyone has internet access, so they may only be getting information VERY BELATEDLY such as you did. I suppose there is something to be said for them at least getting a letter to you at all, but it’s just so exasperating when I think of the pets that were (and probably are still!) getting salmonella-contaminated products because their owners were unaware of the situation. (Okay, I just reread my comment and realized that I was confusing the Petrapport Berkley & Jensen pig ear dog treats recall with the T.W. Enterprises American Bullie A.B. Bull Pizzle Puppy Chews and Dog Chews recall…sorry! I guess with the non-stop flow of recalls one is BOUND to get them confused at some point.
The twelve day delay on the American Bullie stuff DOES still irk me, though! 
)
And as for “safe foods”, that’s another thing that gets me about these companies that keep saying their foods are safe, then turn around and end up recalling them such as Royal Canin US did. I had just made a blog entry which mentioned that Royal Canin US had a notice on their web site making sure consumers knew that their products were NOT involved in the Royal Canin pet deaths in South Africa. Then LITERALLY within an hour of me posting that entry, Royal Canin US posted a new web site release saying that they WERE recalling products.
So I really wish that pet food companies would just shut-the-heck-up about saying their foods are safe…no one REALLY knows. Sigh.
April 27, 2007 at 1:22 pm
trknthbear
Just what will it take to convince the USA to ceasse all food imports from countries that are NOT up to our standards? Why do we have to import from them at all? The USA grows enough grains to take care of our needs – why this continued swapping of good for bad?
April 28, 2007 at 4:31 pm
SoCalMuchacha
I wish I knew the answer to your question, trknthbear. Continuously shaking my head about that one.