We’ve decided to take a week off and let the chemical melamine write the blog, because our feeble minds can not comprehend the extent of the contamination that has entered our food supply. Today’s news is that it is not “wheat gluten” that contaminated the pet food that has killed thousands and thousands of pets, but “wheat flour.” What’s more, the wheat flour was also used as food for fish that were meant for human consumption.

Fantastic news. They don’t know how many U.S. fish farming operations used the tainted feed or what type of fish they fed it to. Some of the fish was probably sold to grocery stores and restaurants, some might have been released into lakes and rivers.

From the Washington Post:

Government scientists said they will conduct a risk analysis to determine whether eating fish that were fed tainted feed raises human health concerns. A similar analysis completed last weekend concluded that chickens fed small amounts of contaminated pet food were safe to eat.

David Acheson, the FDA’s assistant commissioner for food protection, said he is optimistic that the risks of eating fish will be minimal, even though contaminated ingredients may have made up a greater percentage of the fish feed than of the chicken feed.

In other news, the “wheat gluten” was, in fact, simply wheat flour. Chinese manufacturers added melamine to the flour to make it appear to be wheat gluten.

Gluten is the high-protein constituent of flour that remains after starch has been removed. Investigators suspect that Chinese exporters boosted their profits by using cheap, unprocessed, low-protein flour and adding melamine, which gives false high-protein readings.

Nice job. Might want to avoid farm raised fish until they let you know if its ok to eat.—MEGHANN MARCO

Farm-Raised Fish Given Tainted Food [Washington Post]
(Photo:cygnoir)

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