Looks like the China scare caught this in the dragnet
Kirk
Tainted livestock feed in U.S.
Company added melamine
RICK WEISS; The Washington Post
Published: May 31st, 2007 01:00 AM
WASHINGTON An Ohio company has long been adding the industrial toxin
melamine to animal feed ingredients, and those feeds have been consumed by
livestock and fish meant for human consumption, officials with the Food and
Drug Administration said Wednesday. The FDAs announcement was the first
indication that a U.S. company had used melamine as an animal feed ingredient.
Previously, the problem of melamine in animal feed was thought to be contained
to China, where manufacturers had added it to wheat gluten.
The Ohio company was adding the chemical as a binding agent to hold feed
granules in pellet form, in contrast to the recent pet food scandal, which
involved imported ingredients that were spiked with melamine to provide a false
measure of protein content, officials said.
But as with the pet food scandal, they said, the levels of melamine involved
appear to be too low to pose a health hazard to any humans who might have eaten
animals that consumed the tainted feed.
The company, Tembec BTLSR Inc. of Toledo, sold the melamine-laden feed
ingredients to Uniscope Inc. of Johnstown, Colo., which used them to make three
finished food products one for cattle, sheep and goats, and two meant for
fish and shrimp.
The contamination came to the FDAs attention May 18 after officials from
Uniscope tested for melamine in the feed components they were buying
something the FDA has been encouraging food producers to do.
The FDA began an investigation the next working day, officials said.
As the culmination of that process, officials said, Tembec initiated a formal
recall Wednesday of its products, and the company has stopped adding the
chemical.
It remains unclear why Tembec did not stop the practice of using melamine
months ago given the intense publicity generated by the pet food scandal,
during which officials repeatedly made it clear that melamine is not an
approved additive for human or animal food.
What they knew and didnt know before will be part of the investigation as
it unfolds, said David Acheson, the FDAs assistant commissioner for food
protection, during a telephone news conference Wednesday.
Officials said they didnt know how many animals might have eaten the food or
how long the practice of making the pellets with melamine has been going on.
But the presumption, Acheson said, is that its a longstanding practice.
Melamine levels in the companies livestock feed were so low as to not pose
any risk to the animals, much less to consumers, Acheson said. Levels in the
fish and shrimp feed were high enough to raise some concerns about those
animals health, but are still very unlikely to pose a human health risk, he
added.
Acheson said that the two fish feed products that Uniscope made from Tembecs
tainted ingredients were exported to other countries. The FDA is trying to
track the amounts and destinations of the feed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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