I’ve never heard of him before (so I’ve got no idea how reliable he is) but, David Goldstein at The Huffington Post wrote yesterday that Del Monte foods received tainted wheat gluten in a “food-grade” shipment:
Del Monte Foods has confirmed that the melamine-tainted wheat gluten used in several of its recalled pet food products was supplied as a “food grade” additive, raising the likelihood that contaminated wheat gluten might have entered the human food supply.
“Yes, it is food grade,” Del Monte spokesperson Melissa Murphy-Brown wrote in reply to an e-mail query.
(snip)
Wheat gluten is sold in both “food grade” and “feed grade” varieties. Either may be used in pet food, but only “food grade” gluten may be used in the manufacture of products meant for human consumption. Published reports have thus far focused on tainted pet food, but if the gluten in question entered the human food supply through a major food products supplier and processor, it could potentially contaminate thousands of products and hundreds of millions of units nationwide.
I don’t want to be an alarmist, but I can’t help but wonder: Why aren’t BIG questions being asked? Like:
What exactly could melamine poisoning do to humans? And what does it do to animals? It seems to be affecting cats more than dogs, so is it weight-related?
How can we be assured that factories are keeping “food-grade” additives separate from “non-food-grade” additives. Especially in foreign countries.
How much of our food comes from other countries? And how does the FDA inspect it? I’ve heard that some countries use pesticides that we’ve banned. Do we get foods treated with them here?
I think it’s time we are told more detail about the ingredients in our packaged food — human & pet. And I don’t think it’s alarmist to ask.
I agree with all of the above.
My gut (heh) feeling is that there won’t be that much danger to humans, since we’re generally larger than our pets & the amount of gluten in most foods tends to be fairly small. Not that I’d want to try it! I guess it depends on how much melamine is in the gluten & how sensitive people are to that particular ingredient.
I would be most concerned about breads, where a loaf of bread can have a tablespoon of gluten or more — especially in “whole-wheat” or rye (or oat) bread where the gluten is necessary to help the dough rise.
How much of our food comes from other countries? Quite a bit, especially if you’re talking out-of-season produce — there’s quite a deal with South America, where we ship them our produce during the summer (their winter) and they ship us theirs during our winter. I think the *average* distance that food travels from origin to supermarket is around 1500 miles in the US, and three times that in Canada. Even organic foods can come from far away places.
I guess it’s time to get serious about increasing the amount of local content in our chow.
Hi FF,
I’ve noticed a huge increase in overseas food — our grocery store (Aldi) sells fish from China for example.
At Whole Foods (where I mostly look — it’s pretty expensive) they label what country the veggies come from with big signs. But they don’t do that at Aldi. It is on the labels if you look hard enough though. And they are often from other countries.
Have you read about what melamine does when eaten? Does it overload the kidneys? Is that why they fail?
It looks like we’re talking about nitriles/cyanide here. No wonder it’s killing cats and dogs !
http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic118.htm
Thanks for the link, catdog, I’m totally swamped today, but I’ll follow it when I get home tonight.
Are you saying that melamine is a POISON?
It’s supposed to be, but only in “high doses,” but without knowing how it got into the gluten, it’s hard to say how much was in it.
For instance, if you think you’re putting “A” into the pot and “B” looks a lot like “A” either in itself, or the container it’s in– who knows ?
And then there’s what constitutes a “high dose”– that would be different for cats than for people. A small cat vs. a big dog would make a difference, too, I would think.
Yes, melamine is supposedly used as a rat poison, although not in the US.
Rats love granaries, so it’s not surprising that some Celestial Rat Reaping found its way into the grain by accident (e.g. packets placed in the rafters get knocked off their perch… don’t ask me how I would think of this).
Ah, FF — Thanks. So, it’s not the rat poison they originally thought it might be. But it is rat poison still. Thanks for explaining this.
And the packets on the rafters makes sense too.
Oh well. I’m interested in this story. I just hope I don’t let it become an obsession. Or something stupid.
I do believe that the Tainted Wheat Gluten HAS entered the food chain.
My stomach has not been right for over a week now. I quit eating bread for a couple days and it got a little better. I had two muffins and biscuits for breakfast and the next day it was back again.
Symptoms are upset stomach, WIERD diarrhea, muscousy, runny wierd stuff and food goes right through you. Eat then run to the potty.
Just think people should know, we too are probably at risk for this Tainted Wheat Gluten.
Please send responses to Whatyouwantphoto@hotmail.com
THanks,
Hi Debbie, I have a friend who has recently been diagnosed with a gluten problem, have you thought about looking into that?
I just wanted to comment on the above post. My husband and I have been battling a stomach/intestional thing for a month. It is unlike anything we have ever had. We eat a lot of oat bread and whole wheat. I had even ordered black walnut hull, artemisia, and ginger thinking we had contracted some kind of parasite. That’s how weird this has been. All of us need to know for certain if we have been exposed to this stuff and what we should do. Thanks for this informative site.
I often eat a small bowl of dry cheerios as a mild snack. At least I see it as mild since this is supposedly a suitable snack even for infants to digest. However, the batch I had last night gave me a _severe_ reaction. Within 30 minutes I had severe abdominal pain, kind of painful bloating (distension?) and light nausea/vomiting; and couldn’t sleep until 5am. It may have subsided sooner if I vomited more of it out, not sure. I have no family history of allergies and haven’t had any trouble my entire life with wheat, gluten, etc. Though I would bet that I can be allergic to rat poison, melamine, etc. I will see if a blood test can reveal if I have been exposed to melamine.
I think perhaps they don’t want the public to be so alarmed that it impacts the consumer brands into which companies have invested so much $. Sure seems like the FDA should NEVER consider such political/corporate interests.
TK — Have you gone to a doctor about this? There is a blood test pets can be given to see if they’ve been exposed. It must be available to people too.
I eat an off-brand of Cheerios every morning for breakfast, but I haven’t noticed any ill effects.
Please get tested.
I battled chronic urinary tract infections for quite some time. Interesting was the fact that white blood cells would constantly show up in my urine even after the bacteria was long gone and I had chronic pain in my right kidney area that would not go away. The doctors had no explanation as to why. I used to eat these whole wheat crackers all the time. I stopped eating them, started taking natural medicine for the kidneys and my pain, white blood cells in the urine are now gone. I do however eat ALOT of pork products (2-3 times/week) and am now experiencing numbness in my lower left leg. Does anyone now if this is a symptom of melamine poisoning?
This link http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Poisoning.jsp?Rec_Id=PC35459
seems to relate only inhaled melamine, thus reports only respiratory symptoms. Will dig further.
Hi Kim and catdog (I was sick yesterday and didn’t get on the computer at all after 11ish)
The FDA is saying that eating chickens and pigs that have been fed the stuff. And that means that rather than standing up for us, they’re going to drag this out.
Maybe it won’t cause problems.
But there’s reason to believe that it COULD cause kidney trouble. And we don’t even know what sort of doctor would know how to deal with Kim’s symptoms. Because this is new enough I don’t think our GP/FP would know what to do — or even how to diagnose it.
What kind of scientist says right off the bat that it isn’t a danger to us? Do they HAVE scientists at the FDA?
Maybe the Centers for Disease Control should be involved?
It’s not wacky to wonder about this issue is it?
It’s bad enough that THOUSANDS of pets have died — horrible in fact. But if it’s in OUR food now, thousands of people could die. And there’s got to be some government agency on top of this.
(sigh) Time to send a letter to my congressman, I guess.
I really think the contamination in our food supply is probably much worse than the FDA is admitting and I really think the problem has been there for longer than they are portraying. The recall would be so much larger than the pet food that they are going to do a token investigation and leave it at that. For myself, whom my GP called ‘a picture of health’ not that long ago, experiencing the urinary/kidney problem was difficult to take and finding a doctor who could hep me was even harder. I was told by a specialist there was ‘no cure’ and I would have to live with the problem. How are the GP’s and specialists supposed to determine if it is related to melamine poisioning? The FDA knows the doctors are not capable of finding melamine and they figure noone is going to die from it and it is exactly why they are doing nothing. Yes, we may not die from this, but how much is a healthy kidney worth?
I guess writing to our congressman is all we really can do….
Kim, I think we’ve got to blanket the country with letters — to Congress, Senate, the CDC & FDA and letters to the editor even more.
Because hardly any TV channel is talking about this. So most people know nothing about it at all.
As someone who faces kidney problems because of diabetes — I can’t stand the thought of something else putting me at risk.
Have you checked the National Institutes of Health, or other major hospital web sites to see if they have any advice for people with your symptoms?
Or any of us?
I will see a doctor to ask about a blood test. If there are any that can identify past melamine exposure I will pay whatever cost to determine for sure and let you know my result. As I was suffering/recovering I told my wife to remove the Cheerios from the cupboard and make sure nobody else ate any. I intended to test the actual contents rather than having to rely on my blood in the first place. Unfortunately she threw it out instead :-/ !!
Kind of a needle in a haystack, so this is really disappointing. But I will hope that there is such a blood test then.
Oh, I WISH she hadn’t tossed out the Cheerios (but I know how those things happen and she might have been afraid just to have them in the house if they made you THAT sick)
Did you see the story about Crystalized Kidneys?
Hello Everyone. I like someone who posted earlier am having stomach problems on and off in the past few weeks. Symptoms include diarhea, nausea, severe stomach cramps, mucus in stool etc. Im starting to get really scared. I am going to get a doc appt and see about a blood test for melamine.
Hi Dianna, Please let us know what you learn. And I’d also bring all prescription drugs along too. A couple of years ago I had symptoms like what you’re describing, but it turned out to be a reaction to medication.
Switching to a smaller/timed-release version of the drug made all the difference for me.
Think I may have this or if not something real similar.