Melamine And China

[Yankees Rule]

Wild just wild. I guess we better not eat anything from Mainland China.

[samclem]

Did you forget to include a link in your post, or are you just ruminating?

[Rustward]

It has been in the news recently. I just searched "melamine China products" in Google News and got several hits that are less than one day old.

[Frugality_of_Apathy]

"On monday China announced 52,857 children were taken to hospital after drinking milk thought to have been contaminated by the industrial chemical melamine."

Pure melamine is non-toxic in low doses; its toxicity is half of table salt's. The problemn is chronic exposure as it combines with cyanuric acid to become insoluble forming kidney stones.
Melamine Cyanurate's one of the safer flame retardants in plastic though not very effective. I prefer using bromine based flame retardants but those are quickly being banned altogether. The reason Melamine has started showing up in food and feed is that the high nitrogen content of it will fool lab tests that use nitrogen as an indicator of protein content. This means they can cut their animal feed and powdered milk with cheap fillers and mask that they did it with melamine.

Of course a lot of this is the purchaser's own fault, as rather than requiring that there be a certain protein content they will require that it be above X.XX on a test for nitrogen, leaving the door wide open to just add what needs to be added to pass the test.

[mickeyd]

It appears as though China is using melamine like many Chinese eateries use MSG.

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yankees Rule Wild just wild. I guess we better not eat anything from Mainland China.

Hey newguy, back in the Headline News bidness, I see...

[SteveL]

The bigger problem with China may be that the years of Communism have created a culture in which any act that produces profits is ok. Hence you see lead based paint on toys, melamine in animal feed and milk, bad dog food exports. It is the same culture that thinks it is ok to buy pirated software and movies. Personally, I won't buy any food item from China....

[Westernskies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveL Personally, I won't buy any food item from China....

The problem with this logic is you can't verify the supply chain. Ingredients aren't listed by country of origin. Raw materials, additives, preservatives, packaging- how do you know where these were made?

[Urchina]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westernskies The problem with this logic is you can't verify the supply chain. Ingredients aren't listed by country of origin. Raw materials, Additives, preservatives, packaging- how do you know where these were made?

For example, I just learned that 80% of the world's gum arabic is produced by Sudan, not a government that I want to support.

The solution, I think, is to spend less money at Wal-Mart or Safeway and more at your local farmer's market. Eating whole foods produced in your community (or close to it) without additives and preservatives automatically takes a lot of questionable stuff out of the loop.

Say you don't have a farmer's market in the winter or at all? Buy produce and products made in the USA, and go (again) for stuff without additives or preservatives.

Finally, write your elected representatives and demand that food and ingredients be labeled with country of origin.