China awash in melamine? Now it’s zoo animals
September 26, 2008
So much for “just” pet food. Now the Shanghai zoo has baby lions and orangutans with melamine-induced kidney stones. Tainted products have made their way into Japan and Taiwan, and the Europeans are worried that melamine-tainted milk products could be in candies, toffees, and chocolate. They will be testing Chinese products containing at least 15% milk. But what about soy products, I wonder? Those too are supposed to be high in protein and might be good candidates for adulteration.
And just to reiterate: last year’s pet food scandal showed that while it takes lots of melamine to cause kidney crystals, it takes hardly any to form crystals when cyanuric acid (a by-product of melamine) is present. The amount of melamine in food for humans, pets, and zoo animals should be nothing but zero. Food safety officials should test like mad and tighten up policies, and right now! As for China: it had best get its food safety act together and fast.
Last weekend, we went to visit the farmer that boards the cows in our cowshare. We had a wonderful field day, watched the milking, learned to make various dairy products, and just generally enjoyed being out on a farm hosted by our farmer. Before we left for that event, I checked the news and saw that the sicknesses caused by melamine poisoning had risen to 12,000 children (and, of course, it’s gone higher since). It was quite a stark relief, to see the process that our family’s milk goes through, versus what is currently happening on the world scale. Whatever arguments there may be against raw milk must pale against the abuses happening now. Our farmer brought us to his farm and showed us his entire operation. He could look me in the eye, with my husband, and my two sons in tow, and say with all honesty that he will do his job protecting our lives and our health. I’ve never felt more secure in our food before.
Comment by Robyn M. — September 26, 2008 @ 11:17 am
This is tragic and criminal.
I vote we refuse to buy more Chinese food products of any kind until they have a tough, reliable, comprehensive product safety program.
Comment by Sheila — September 26, 2008 @ 9:32 pm
It is sad to see that people in this world are so greedy that they can watch people and animals suffer just to make more money. That is what this is all about, money.
-Sara, World Zoo Today
www.worldzootoday.com
Comment by Sara — September 27, 2008 @ 1:35 am