Glue Contaminates Animal Foods.

FOOD ALERT: 3 million chickens for sale in the USA contaminated by glue chemical

Around 3 million chickens that are currently being sold in stores and
supermarkets across America have been contaminated by the chemical
melamine.

Melamine is used in industrial glues, fire retardants and fertilisers, and
has so far killed a dozen cats and dogs that have eaten contaminated pet
food.

The chemical has entered the human food chain because scraps of the
pet food were added to the animal feed given to several thousand pigs
and millions of chickens.

US health inspectors have traced the contamination back to Chinese
suppliers, who added it to the pet food to make it appear their products
contained more protein than they actually did.

Only 345 hogs that ate the contaminated feedstuff went to market, but
inspectors fear that up to 3 million chickens may currently be for sale in
the shops.

Inspectors stress that the contaminated meat poses a very low health
risk to humans, but this will do little to assuage a public that believes
there are too few controls on what is put into our food.

The Food and Drug Administration has responded by appointing a special
commissioner on food protection, a move that has been met by equal
measures of scepticism and disinterest.

Former FDA commissioner David Kessler points out that the FDA lacks
teeth when it comes to food safety. “The fact is that the federal
government has more authority to halt the distribution of dangerous toys
than it has over unsafe food products,” he said.

(Source: The Lancet, 2007; 369: 2575).