Is milk the only product from China contaminated with melamine? What about flour?
By Romualdo Reyes, reader | 09/25/2008 5:39 PM
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Is milk the only product from China contaminated with melamine? What about flour?
Is flour smuggled from China, safe from melamine contaminant?
Melamine is sometimes unethically added to food products in order to increase the apparent protein content. Standard tests such as the Kjeldahl and Dumas tests estimate protein levels by measuring the nitrogen content, so they can be misled by adding nitrogen-rich compounds such as melamine. ["Protein Pretense", Alison Snyder, Scientific American Magazine, August 2008] accessdate=2008-09-19
Can flour users assure consumers of the safety of their bread products especially when they use imported flour materials?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine
Melamine is an organic base with the chemical formula C3H6N6, with the
IUPAC name 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine. It is only slightly soluble in water.
Melamine is a trimer of cyanamide. Like cyanamide, it is 66% nitrogen (by mass) and provides fire retardant properties to resin formulas by releasing nitrogen when burned or charred. Dicyandiamide (or cyanoguanidine), the dimer of cyanamide, is also used as a fire retardant.
Melamine is a metabolite of cyromazine, a pesticide. It is formed in the body of mammals who have ingested cyromazine.[2] It was also reported that cyromazine is converted to melamine in plants.[3]
Uses
Melamine is used combined with formaldehyde to produce melamine resin, a very durable thermosetting plastic, and melamine foam, a polymeric cleaning product. The end products include countertops, dry erase boards, fabrics, glues, housewares and flame retardants. Melamine is one of the major components in Pigment Yellow 150, a colorant in inks and plastics.
Melamine also enters the fabrication of melamine poly-sulfonate used as superplastizer for making high-resistance concrete. Sulfonated melamine formaldehyde (SMF) is a polymer used as cement admixture to reduce the water content in concrete while increasing the fluidity and the workability of the mix during its handling and pouring. It results in concrete with a lower porosity and a higher mechanical strength exhibiting an improved resistance to aggressive environments and a longer life-time.
Melamine is also used to make fertilizers.
Melamine derivatives of arsenical drugs are potentially important in the treatment of African trypanosomiasis[7]
Melamine use as non-protein nitrogen (NPN) for cattle was described in a 1958 patent.[8] In 1978, however, a study concluded that melamine "may not be an acceptable non-protein N source for ruminants" because its hydrolysis in cattle is slower and less complete than other nitrogen sources such as cottonseed meal and urea.[9]
Melamine is sometimes unethically added to food products in order to increase the apparent protein content. Standard tests such as the Kjeldahl and Dumas tests estimate protein levels by measuring the nitrogen content, so they can be misled by adding nitrogen-rich compounds such as melamine. [10]Melamine is an organic base with the chemical formula C3H6N6, with the IUPAC name ,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine. It is only slightly soluble in water.
Melamine is a trimer of cyanamide. Like cyanamide, it is 66% nitrogen (by mass) and provides fire retardant properties to resin formulas by releasing nitrogen when burned or charred. Dicyandiamide (or cyanoguanidine), the dimer of cyanamide, is also used as a fire retardant.
Melamine is a metabolite of cyromazine, a pesticide. It is formed in the body of mammals who have ingested cyromazine.[2] It was also reported that cyromazine is converted to melamine in plants.[3]
Incidents involving combination of melamine and cyanuric acid 2007 pet food recalls
Further information: 2007 pet food recalls
In 2007 a pet food recall was initiated by Menu Foods and other pet food manufacturers who had found their products had been contaminated and caused serious illnesses or deaths in some of the animals that had eaten them.[29][30][31] On 30 March 2007, the US Food and Drug
Administration reported finding white granular melamine in the pet food, in samples of white granular wheat gluten imported from a single source in China, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology[32] as well as in crystalline form in the kidneys and in urine of affected animals.[33] Further vegetable protein imported from China was later implicated. See Chinese protein export contamination.
The practice of adding "melamine scrap" to animal feed is reported to be widespread in China in order to give the appearance of increased protein content in animal feed.[34]
[edit] 2007 Ohio recalls
Melamine has also been purposely added as a binder to fish and livestock feed manufactured in the United States and traced to suppliers in Ohio and Colorado.[35]
[edit] 2008 Sanlu milk powder recalls
Further information: 2008 baby milk scandal
In September 2008 Sanlu recalled all powdered milk in the north-west China's Gansu province where melamine was reported to have been used in 22 brands of infant formula, making more than 53,000 infants ill and hospitalizing almost 12,900.[36] Melamine has also been found in products produced by Yili Industrial Group Co, and Mengniu Dairy Co.[37] As of 18 September 2008 there had been four confirmed infant deaths from the contamination of powdered milk with melamine with a number of survivors diagnosed with acute kidney failure.[38]
Melamine may have been added to fool government quality tests after water was added to fraudulently increase the milk's volume. The adulterant melamine was added to the milk to allow the company to dilute the milk with water and circumvent government regulations, since melamine will cause a false increase in the measurement of protein by increasing the nitrogen levels in the
milk.[39][40]Officials estimate that about 20 percent of the dairy companies tested in China sell products tainted with melamine.[41]
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http://oryza.com/Global-Rice/rice-contamination.html
Melamine-Tainted Wheat Gluten, Rice Contained Wheat Flour
An official with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Tuesday said the investigation into melamine-tainted feed ingredients wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate were misrepresented by the Chinese companies and contained wheat flour.
David Acheson, chief medical officer, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, FDA, told reporters on a conference call that the FDA's investigators found that the wheat flour in the products was determined to be the source of the melamine. He also said wheat gluten is a high-protein component of wheat flour.
Visual microscopy and starch tests were used in determining that the material was indeed wheat flour. Acheson said the focus is still on wheat gluten and rice concentrates but he wouldn't exclude the possibility of testing wheat flour imports as well.
The two Chinese companies being investigated from the original finding in April misrepresented the wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate since it contained wheat flour, he said. This discovery doesn't mean this is a new batch of material being investigated, he added, it is just more information now known about the original materials.
The investigation originally sprang from pet food that contained supplements tainted with melamine in China and then exported to the U.S. Melamine can make supplements appear to have falsely higher protein levels, which commands a higher price for the producer.
Romualdo Reyes
the.web.scene[at]gmail.com
