Turkish Dogs - particularly Anatolian Shepherd Dogs

I'm not going to blame 'China' for all the recent problems.

I'm sure plenty of people are wondering why Quality Assurance and Quality Control by wealthier consumer countries isn't tighter, or whatever safety assurance it is that could make these suppliers of consumables run a tighter/cleaner ship. Lack of ability to find business if their shabby products didn't come up to specs with the big guys does help.

No, I'm not going to say that they are all equally to blame. A LOT of stuff is rejected at the outset. Sometimes I suspect it's a game. "How long can I cut corners and get away with it" Because some of these businesses seem to be able to disappear without a trace, if the news is to be believed.

From TOKYO (Reuters) - Chinese merchandise took a fresh knock Friday when car maker Nissan said it was recalling tens of thousands of mugs it gave away in Japan because the paint contains excessive lead.

It said it took the action after a hapless car-shopper fell ill after drinking from one of the mugs and complained.

Nissan Motor said the cups, which it was giving to anyone who test-drove one of its cars in Japan during a sales initiative that started on August 16, had a lead content that was more than 30 percent above the permissible level.

Japan's third-biggest carmaker said it would recall the mugs, which it said could have reached as many as 87,000 potential customers. It did not know the identity of the manufacturer in China.

Chinese products have come under intense scrutiny over safety concerns in recent months, prompting recalls of products from toys and toothpaste to seafood and tires.

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.

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Link:
Skull and Crossbones Avatar Egads, that's a just a bit much! (but I'm playing with CSS for effect. So there!)

Labels: China, Melamine, strange

China shuts plants that produced tainted medicine, pet food - CNN.com:
"BEIJING, China (AP) --

Ahead of high-level visits by U.S. and European officials, China moved to sharpen its product safety image Friday, shutting down a chemical plant linked to dozens of deaths in Panama from tainted medicine and closing two companies tied to pet deaths in North America.

Inspectors work in a food safety inspection center in Beijing, China.

The measures come as Beijing struggles to reassure global customers that it takes food and drug safety seriously amid concerns over chemicals and toxins that have been found in its products.

The closures come months after links between the companies' products and the deaths became known, but only days before visits by European Union and U.S. officials." (more)

Labels: China, Melamine

From CBS
China To Execute Chief Food Inspector

Beijing's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court convicted Zheng Xiaoyu of taking bribes in cash and gifts worth more than 6.49 million yuan ($832,000) while he was director of the State Food and Drug Administration, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

(CBS News) BEIJING The former head of China's food and drug administration was sentenced to death Tuesday for taking bribes to approve substandard medicines — including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths.

Seeking to address broadening concerns over food, the government also announced plans for its first recall system for unsafe products.

The developments are among the most dramatic steps Beijing has publicly taken to address domestic and international alarm over shoddy and unsafe Chinese goods — from pet food ingredients and toothpaste mixed with industrial chemicals to tainted antibiotics. " (more...)

Labels: China, Melamine

From Itchmo
Melamine Spiking in Food “Widespread” For Years

No more denials, no more hemming and hawing by the FDA. Time to take massive cautionary action is now. It’s not just animal feed anymore. It’s not just pet food. It’s a crisis. It’s been going on for years. It’s being done in “wheat, corn, soybean or other proteins”.

I'm not surprised that it happens. Cutting corners for profit is not uncommon. Remember the hairy, carcinogenic soy sauce that Japan (the USA as well) had also unknowingly let into the country.

From Mainichi-msn.co.jp-

"It's not the hair that causes cancer," the soy sauce business insider says, adding that it's possibly caused by MCP, a fluid in the body associated with the breakdown of proteins and increasingly accused of having a potential link to the disease.

China is clearly treating human hair sauce as a problem. Japan bans the use of soy sauce made from anything other than organic proteins, so the animal proteins in human hair sauce are naturally banned. [from a scientific standpoint, that's a strange, incomplete comment]

That's not to say some of the controversial sauce hasn't already been imported.

"We confirm ingredients and production methods at 31 inspection points at sea or airports throughout the country and have not had a single report of that nature since the start of this year," a spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare says. "Perhaps this product was never imported."

Yet, most food inspections at customs are little more than a cursory glance at documents, keeping alive the possibility that some of the human hair sauce may have slipped through.

"It's just not realistic to examine all the soy sauce imported from China," a ministry spokesman tells Asahi Geino. "There's no way we could even possibly do it."

Labels: China, Melamine

Melamine came in a plainly marked bag?


Yet the whole lot of plain bags were contaminated!?

National Pet Foundation

. . .Wilbur-Ellis had notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that a single bag in a recent shipment of rice protein concentrate from its Chinese supplier, Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd., had tested positive for melamine. Unlike the other white-colored bags in that shipment, the bag in question was pink and had the word “melamine” stenciled upon it. Wilbur-Ellis separated that bag and quarantined the entire shipment for further testing and since that time, no further deliveries of rice protein concentrate have been made. Samples from the white bags tested negative for melamine. However, subsequent and potentially more sensitive tests by the FDA came back positive for melamine, leading Wilbur-Ellis to voluntarily issue the recall. (more..)

Labels: Melamine

FOXNews.com -
Pet Food Contamination May Have Been Intentional

Melamine has been found in both wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China. Media reports from South Africa suggest a third pet food ingredient, corn gluten, used in that country also was contaminated with melamine. That tainted ingredient has not been found in the United States, the FDA said.

. . .FDA investigators, meanwhile, are awaiting visas that would allow them to visit the Chinese plants where the vegetable protein ingredients were produced.


'Melamine was found in all three of those; it would certainly lend credibility to the theory that it may be intentional. That will be one of the theories we will pursue when we get into the plants in China,' Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's chief veterinarian, told reporters Thursday.

Chinese authorities have told the FDA that the wheat gluten was an industrial product not meant for pet food, Sundlof said. Still, melamine can skew test results to make a product appear more protein-rich than it is, he said. That raises the possibility the contamination was deliberate.

'What we expect to do with our inspections in China will answer some of those questions,' said Michael Rogers, director of the division of field investigations within the FDA's office of regulatory affairs. (more...)

RELATED LINK:
Stay up to date at http://www.itchmo.com/

Labels: China, Melamine

US Food and Drug Administration has a 'hot topics' page on the Pet Food Recall.
A recent email letter from Hills-

Dear Pet Lovers:

These recent weeks have been difficult for those concerned about pet food.

We want you to know that as pet lovers and owners ourselves, we have been equally upset by the current recall and the events that triggered it. Our hearts go out to those affected, and we vow to work tirelessly to continue our efforts to keep your pets safe and healthy.

Today we are announcing the formation of the National Pet Food Commission, an industry government partnership composed of government officials, veterinarians, toxicologists and food scientists who are committed to maintaining and enhancing the high standards we have set in this country that protect our pets.

The purpose of the new commission is two-fold:

1. To investigate the cause of the current pet food recall.
2. To recommend steps the industry and government should take to further build on safety and quality standards already in place.
   

At the conclusion of its work, the commission will issue a report outlining its findings and offering its recommendations. For a full report on the commission's mission and its members, please visit www.Petfoodreport.com

As federal investigators work to determine the exact cause of the adulteration, we are committed to our partnership, to applying the lessons learned to further strengthen industry procedures and safeguards, and to cooperating fully with any other official investigations relating to this incident.

Melamine, the substance suspected of affecting animals, is not used in pet food manufacturing, and pet food makers have never seen it before. The substance is completely foreign to the process and quite simply should not have been present in wheat gluten.

The total number of pets that have been affected after eating contaminated food remains to be determined, but we know that even if just one pet is affected, it's one too many.

Sincerely,

The People Who Make America's Pet Food

www.petfoodreport.com

Issues in our world of pets have just been too interesting lately. :(

Labels: Food, Melamine