中国禁止在食品中使用三聚氰胺melamine

江南游子

China bans melamine in food products

By ALEXA OLESEN Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

China said Thursday it has banned melamine from food products after the chemical was found in exports of vegetable protein shipped to the United States, but rejected it as the cause of dozens of pet deaths in North America.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials say they suspect the substance, which is a chemical found in plastics and pesticides, is to blame.

China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement there was no evidence to support the FDA's claim but that it would cooperate with the United States to find out what actually killed the animals.

The comments in a statement released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry were the first detailed response from Beijing to concerns that emerged a month ago about the country's wheat and rice gluten exports.

China has said it was investigating the issue but had not acknowledged until Thursday that Chinese companies had shipped gluten tainted with melamine to the United States.

The ministry said the contaminated vegetable protein managed to get past customs without inspection because it had not been declared for use in pet food.
"At present, there is no clear evidence showing that melamine is the direct cause of the poisoning or death of the pets," the statement said. "China is willing to strengthen cooperation with the U.S. side ... to find out the real cause leading to the pet deaths in order to protect the health of the pets of the two countries."

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials have said they suspect Chinese wheat and rice gluten laced with melamine and added to pet food may have killed at least 15 cats and dogs. The chemical appears to have caused acute kidney failure in animals that have died or been sickened after eating foods contaminated with the chemical.

China said an investigation triggered by FDA complaints found melamine in wheat and rice gluten exported to the United States by two Chinese companies: Xuzhou Anying Bio-technology Development Company and Binzhou Futian Bio-technology Company.

The case has prompted China to step up inspections of plant-based proteins and to list melamine as a banned substance for food exports and domestic sales, it said.

China also invited FDA officials to visit China to help with further investigations into the case and to consult on improving inspection techniques, it said.

[本帖最后由 江南游子 于 2007-4-29 22:41 编辑]

ucdavis

There was a recall on the US market for detecting melamine in pet foods (i think it is menu foods or neslte
purina), then it was found come from contaminated wheat gluten imported from china , therefore, FDA
banned on using any contaminated or potentially contaminated wheat gluten from china.

China actually was forced to investigate and launch a corrective action plan about that.

Xiangliao

FDA instructs inspectors to detain Chinese ingredients

By Ahmed ElAmin
5/2/2007- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered inspectors to detain foods from China if they suspect the imports are contaminated with the banned chemical melamine.


In an import alert, the FDA said it had given inspectors the power to detain without inspection all vegetable protein imports from China for use as animal or human foods if they suspect the products might contain melamine.

Facing increasing criticism for its handling of food safety incidents, the FDA has beefed up its regulatory oversight of the industry. Just this week the FDA created a new regulatory position to solely oversee food safety and protection.

The regulatory guidance on melamine was issued in the wake of a contamination scare after hogs meant for human consumption were fed pet foods thought to contain the toxic chemical.

In is import alert guidance the FDA singled out a number of wheat, rice, corn, soy and mung bean imports from China for regulatory attention. Any increase in detention could mean some processors will find their ingredient imports are not available when they need them.

Over the past few weeks, melamine contamination was linked to an outbreak of cat and dog deaths and illness associated with pet food manufactured with vegetable proteins from China.

About 18 pet food manufacturers and others have recalled dog and cat food and other suspect products and ingredients. The FDA noted that it had collected about 750 samples of wheat gluten and products made with wheat gluten.

Of these 330 tested positive for melamine or melamine related compounds. Of the 85 samples of rice protein concentrate and products made with the ingredient, 27 tested positive. All the ingredients were imported from China.

China has since banned its food exporters from using melamine.

Melamine is a chemical compound used in a number of commercial and industrial applications. The US has banned its use as an ingredient in animal and human foods. It has limited authorisation for use in contact materials such as packaging for human food.

The FDA said since the extent of the problem is not known in China it was assigning its inspectors the immediate powers to make detentions.

The FDA is also continuing an investigation after the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) said laboratory testing had detected melamine in urine from hogs at a farm in Ceres.

The findings could potentially further raise consumer fears over the safety of the food chain, even as Congress is examining whether the FDA failed to prevent recent contamination outbreaks linked to spinach and lettuce.

The 1,500 hogs at the American Hog Farm have been quarantined while the CDFA conducts additional testing to determine if melamine is present in meat.

The American Hog Farm operates a sizable part of its business through a "custom slaughterhouse," which processes animals on-site and sells them to individuals for personal use and not for resale.

Melamine is sometimes used to illegally boost the protein content of foods.

(from FoodNavigator-USA)

hikylin

it is a very important report for me thank you very much!

ahuo5222

it is hard to read~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

lanbo78

The chemical appears to have that have died or been sickened after eating foods contaminated with the chemical！now it caused acute kidney failure in chinese babies after
eating milk contaminated with the chemical...........