Cooking with melamine and other poisons.

[GostHacked]

I have been doing some reading on the whole tainted pet food scare. And this really is a scare to me. Melamine is used in wheat gluten to up the percentage of protien in the product.

Many pets have died because of the tainted pet foods and countless more got very ill. Now it seems like it is trickling over to the human food supply. Or more specificly into the feed we give to the animals we eat.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/08/t...e-a-vegetarian/ uses information from http://www.horsesass.org/?p=2899 , but anyways, here are some other sites that can confirm it.

Basicly it has been found in chicken feed, pig feed, and even given to fish at large fish farms. Since Canada and the US have a fairly integrated and similar food chains, it is happening in Canada as well as the US.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...hpid=sec-health

The tainted Chinese ingredient that was incorporated into U.S. pet food and later made its way into chicken and pig feed was neither wheat gluten nor rice protein as advertised, but was seriously contaminated wheat flour, government investigators said yesterday.

Now this seems to be major. According to the Horseass article, wheat gluten and wheat flour are very different to the touch. Maybe some one in the know can shed some light on this.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14467

A second industrial chemical that regulators have found in contaminated pet food in the United States may have also been intentionally added to animal feed by producers seeking larger profits, according to interviews with chemical industry officials here.

As the articles and my reading goes on, the food chain can be messed with quite easily. Bleeding over from pet food to the same food that feeds livestock. Countries use different chemicals in the food for different reasons. Health and saftey issues should prevent some of these ingredients from ever hitting the market. But what Canada or the US does is different from what China and many other countries around the planet do. Different standards for 'quality'. We ban certain chemicals for obvious reasons.Other countries don't. But yet we import food from those countries that DO use the banned chemicals. Kind of odd is it not? OH I am sure that imported foods get screened for unwanted chemicals right? Just like they do for pet food??? Umm.. wait what??

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazett...on/17194613.htm

Chickens that ate bird feed made with a small amount of contaminated pet food are safe for human consumption and can be released for slaughter and sale, federal health officials said Monday.

Now I work in a food distrobution warehouse for one of the biggest grocers in Canada. I see how much product goes in and out our door on a weekly basis. It blew my mind when I started and still blows my mind every day I am in there. Thousands and thousands of products sold every day. Fruit and vegetables from all over the world. New Zealand, Chilie, Argentina, China, Cuba, .. we even get oranges from Israel?!? Long trip, hope it's fresh.

Now if you look at what you eat on a daily basis. How much meat, dairy do you eat? A good deal of what we eat is processed. Frozen dinners, anything in a box really. Contamination can come from anywhere, where standards for the food chain are shakey at best.

Scary stuff is it not?

[bush_cheney2004]

Errrr....not. What does this have to do with US Politics? Pets (dead or alive) cannot vote.

[GostHacked]

Ah crap, yeah should be in a different category. Nuke and I try again?

[bush_cheney2004]

May as well leave it here now.....besides, this area is used as a catch all by many others for whatever American bug in up someone's bum regardless of relevance to US Politics.

As far as the food goes, there is no safety, just probability and statistics.

What's wrong with Israeli citrus?

[GostHacked]

Nothing wrong with it, just seems like a long way to get some oranges. I know Chile is far, but there are fruits we get that only come from Chilie. Oranges I think are pretty common. Even the special ones.

[bush_cheney2004]

No big deal....Grandma can kill you just as fast with incompetent canning techniques. Tainted spinach came from California. BSE from Alberta. Bad water from Walkerton municipal supply.

[gc1765]

I'd be much more worried about This Chemical

[Charles Anthony]

Now if you look at what you eat on a daily basis. How much meat, dairy do you eat? A good deal of what we eat is processed. Frozen dinners, anything in a box really. Contamination can come from anywhere, where standards for the food chain are shakey at best.

This is where the old adages "You get what you pay for." and "garbage in, garbage out." step in.

Here is a summary of my view -- pet food and beyond:

If you want to have accountability, deal local. Unfortunately, you will probably pay more for many things to which I say: "Tough luck. Nobody owes you anything."

This goes for more than just food. It applies to all goods and services.

If I hire a plumber to fix my faucet, I know where he lives if he does not fix it right.

I ate a can of tuna yesterday and I have no idea where that tuna fish swam. I know for sure it was a bargain (3 for $2) but that is all I know about it. I trusted it was fine. If it was NOT fine, I would have no recourse. I do not even remember the retailer.

In my town, home-made super-natural healthy-healthy locally-produced pet food is available. However, it costs nearly double the price of that garbage pet food and I tell you, all of that low-price pet food is truly garbage. You may as well feed your pets table scraps or stuff cooked up from the ReducedToClear rack.

Now it seems like it is trickling over to the human food supply. Or more specificly into the feed we give to the animals we eat.

That is the price we pay for cheap and fast food.

[gc1765]

"VANCOUVER — Canada's largest producer of aquaculture feed issued a product recall yesterday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that farmed fish have been fed meal contaminated with melamine - the same chemical that has tainted pet food throughout North America."

Link

[geoffrey]

Who eats farmed fish? We've known they are super toxic with mercury for years.

[GostHacked]

Who eats farmed fish? We've known they are super toxic with mercury for years.

You propably eat a good deal of farmed fish but do not know it. I am guessing it can be used for other things in our food supply. The amount of mercury and melamine would have been diluted to the point where it is not a concern. But for me and many others, this is little comfort.

[GostHacked]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/18/...in2826143.shtml

(AP) About 80,000 chickens that were fed contaminated pet food scraps can be released for processing because testing showed meat from the birds is safe to eat, the Agriculture Department said Friday.

Okay.

While the dog and cat food was lethal to some pets, the diluted use of pet food scraps in animal feed apparently did not sicken any farm animals. Nor, in turn, do any of those animals pose a health risk to humans if eaten, according to the USDA and Food and Drug Administration.

One of the comments on that page really struck me.

Who would believe anything from the USDA and the FDA? Also, they fed these animals food that wasn't even good enough for pet food.

If the food was not good enough to give our pets but good enough to be eaten by the animals WE eat. You are what you eat correct? You want the best quality chicken and meats right? You get out what you put into it correct? If we feed our animals crap food, we might as well skip the step and eat it directly ourselves. Sure extreme but you get the point.

Some will be affected by the contaminated food more than others.

[geoffrey]

I'd be much more worried about This Chemical

Eww. Good thing I don't drink bottled water or eat canned food. Whew!

Who eats farmed fish? We've known they are super toxic with mercury for years.

You propably eat a good deal of farmed fish but do not know it. I am guessing it can be used for other things in our food supply. The amount of mercury and melamine would have been diluted to the point where it is not a concern. But for me and many others, this is little comfort.

I think ingredients listing fish would be rather interest grabbing. I'm going to say I doubt it. For actually fish, I'll only eat the wild variety, wouldn't want to eat too much mercury, just a little is good for my insanity .

[kuzadd]

gosthacked , it is scary stuff. I agree.

personally, I buy locally, as much as possible. watch the processed foods, and grow our own, organically, in a backyard garden.

IMO, in food production, profit reigns supreme and to heck with everything else.

I am not against making money, before anyone jumps to conclusions, I just think when profit is the ONLY goal, everything else suffers, this is a broad criticism, as it can be applied across the spectrum, to a number of industries.

Very lax practices to keep costs down, factory farming, slave labour, just the garbage they feed to animals to produce the meat we eat, YUK!

[GostHacked]

gosthacked , it is scary stuff. I agree.

personally, I buy locally, as much as possible. watch the processed foods, and grow our own, organically, in a backyard garden.

IMO, in food production, profit reigns supreme and to heck with everything else.

I am not against making money, before anyone jumps to conclusions, I just think when profit is the ONLY goal, everything else suffers, this is a broad criticism, as it can be applied across the spectrum, to a number of industries.

Very lax practices to keep costs down, factory farming, slave labour, just the garbage they feed to animals to produce the meat we eat, YUK!

Negilence comes into play, saftey protocols are chucked out the door, as long as the profits are good and shareholders are happy (be careful of where you invest your money, you might be indirectly supporting this ) then everything is fine.

I have been finding recently and I am to blame myself, no one has pride in their work anymore, no one wants to be the whistleblower, and no one demands better quality anymore. Everyones attitude is 'meh, who cares, does not affect me', but when in fact it does.

[Higgly]

Interestingly enough, I saw large bins of food clearly marked "Product of China" being offered at fire sale prices in a local supermarket yesterday. Having worked in China, I was worried about Chinese food products before this happened. The Chinese have a huge adulterated food problem. Watch for executions to try and smarten up the population in the near future. They're not going to want this sort of nonsense to cast a shadow over the Olympics.

[betsy]

Now if you look at what you eat on a daily basis. How much meat, dairy do you eat? A good deal of what we eat is processed. Frozen dinners, anything in a box really. Contamination can come from anywhere, where standards for the food chain are shakey at best.

Scary stuff is it not?

Yes, very scary indeed.

Especially when you think of possible terrorist attacks by tampering with our food supply....through food products that come from other countries. If it's a slow-acting poison, imagine how many people will be affected before it's even discovered.

[Higgly]

...

[margrace]

Errrr....not. What does this have to do with US Politics? Pets (dead or alive) cannot vote.

Ah yes but the people who suffered from the ecoli in salad greens can and do. A very scarry program on CNN tonigh, really shows why we should not be eating pre packaged salad greens or any other type from the US.

But Cattle are once again getting the blame, perhaps its time we all started growing our own food and buying locally.

[GostHacked]

Errrr....not. What does this have to do with US Politics? Pets (dead or alive) cannot vote.

Ah yes but the people who suffered from the ecoli in salad greens can and do. A very scarry program on CNN tonigh, really shows why we should not be eating pre packaged salad greens or any other type from the US.

But Cattle are once again getting the blame, perhaps its time we all started growing our own food and buying locally.

The salad bit is interesting to note as well. I can tell you how many of those prepackaged Dole salads we move out the door on a weekly basis. Dole has a range of about 20 different salads available. We move on average 2-3 skids of a type of salad per week. 40 cases on a skid let's say. Anyone of those could be contaminated with E.Coli. And I bet they do come from the US, I really am not sure if Dole packages their salads 'localy' here in Canada or in the US.

Long way for a salad to come from.

[geoffrey]

Ahh pre-packaged salad... the staple of the single guy's diet. I'll take my chances on ecoli over having to actually cut up stuff for salad.

[margrace]

Geoffry the little girl featured on CNN who got ecoli poisoning from spinach nearly died. Her kidneys virtually shut down and she will live but never be well again. The list of foods she now can not eat is mind bogling. Maybe you better get that knife out.

[GostHacked]

Ahh pre-packaged salad... the staple of the single guy's diet. I'll take my chances on ecoli over having to actually cut up stuff for salad.

Are you still living at home??? Us bachelors do NOT , I repeast, DO NOT eat salads... even pre packaged ones. We are more likely to get BSE from all the burgers we eat.

It won't matter if the salad is packaged or you have to cut it up. I am going to guess that E.Coli can affect heads of lettuce as well. I am not sure if the risk is the same for both.

[geoffrey]

Are you still living at home??? Us bachelors do NOT , I repeast, DO NOT eat salads... even pre packaged ones. We are more likely to get BSE from all the burgers we eat.

I disagree. It shows the women that your at least somewhat healthy minded... no one can tell it's prepackaged once it's in a bowl...

And what if the parents are visiting. The worst is when the mom is looking through the fridge going "is there anything healthy in here??" I'd rather have some salad than deal with that... at least have some fruit and stuff in there in advance of such visits.

I'd hate to get scurvy or something like that... it certainly wasn't fun for the pirates.

Burgers?! Ugh. Bachelors = no kids = lots of disposible income. Eat a rare Alberta beef steak, that's a much better way to get BSE. Burgers you have to cook pretty decently, eliminating alot of the risk of ecoli and stuff like that.

And we know if food isn't risky to eat, it just doesn't taste as good.

It won't matter if the salad is packaged or you have to cut it up. I am going to guess that E.Coli can affect heads of lettuce as well. I am not sure if the risk is the same for both.

Good call. If it was on the lettuce to begin with....

Maybe we all need to start boiling our lettuce???

[GostHacked]

And what if the parents are visiting. The worst is when the mom is looking through the fridge going "is there anything healthy in here??" I'd rather have some salad than deal with that... at least have some fruit and stuff in there in advance of such visits.

I make sure there is beer in ther fridge.

I disagree. It shows the women that your at least somewhat healthy minded... no one can tell it's prepackaged once it's in a bowl...

Just do it in an open public place so the girls know you are attempting to eat healthy. Or else they wont know.

Boiling lettuce... might work, but noooo taste.. the thought is redicoulous, i likeit.