Why we should all care about the pet food recalls

Yesterday's recall of pet foods containing rice protein concentrate have added to the worries of pet owners who were already concerned over the recalls involving wheat gluten.  Other Kossaks have already reported on this here and here.

As disturbing as the pet food recalls are in themselves, a perhaps even more disturbing story line that is emerging is that we should all be concerned about the use of protein concentrates in the human food supply as well. While there is no evidence yet that any such adulterated products have entered the human food supply, the FDA is taking this possibility seriously:

As an added precaution, however, we have asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to use its surveillance network to monitor for signs of human illness, such as increased renal failure, that could indicate contamination of the human food supply.

Protein concentrates such as rice protein concentrate, wheat gluten, soy protein concentrate, etc. are priced largely on the basis of protein content.  However, the standards for measuring protein content in the food industry do not measure protein content directly but rather measure nitrogen content, leaving them susceptible to fraudulent introduction of non-food sources of nitrogen such as the Melamine that has been found in recalled pet food.  It has already been suggested that the Melamine in wheat gluten imported from China was purposely added to increase protein content measures at reduced price.

This problem of inexpensively priced fraudulent protein content is apparently not a new one.  A 2005 web page item on a Chinese food additives exporter's web site warns: (click NEWS button at website)

BE CAREFUL OF PSEUDO RICE PROTEIN FEED GRADE
Recently, we found Rice Protein Concentrate Feed Grade with very low price in market. Its appearance is White, good fineness & good looking. It make some of our customers confused aboutour Rice Protein's appearance and price.

After we searched in the market, we kindly inform everybody,
This kind of product is PSEUDO rice protein, and there are 2 kinds:
1. Inorganic nitrogen and a small part of other vegetable protein mixed together.
2. Biuret (one of the carbamide/urea)

How to know it is PSEUDO RICE PROTEIN: (Based on analysis)
1. Total Nitrogen is Inorganic nitrogen.
2. All proteins have isoelectric point. It has no isoelectric point (pI).

Note: I have no reason to suspect this particular Chinese supplier of any wrongdoing and am pointing to its website merely to indicate that it was warning its customers of this problem in 2005.

While this company was reporting a problem in animal feed additives and the current recalls involve only pet foods, the underlying chemistry and production of human grade protein concentrates is the same and companies would have just as much incentive to inflate protein content numbers at low cost.  Moreover, the brand of pet food that was recalled yesterday advertises that it uses uses human grade ingredients.

Canadian author Ann N. Martin, who researched the pet food industry for five years, called Natural Balance's recall "very upsetting." In earlier interviews with ConsumerAffairs.com, Martin said Natural Balance is one of the few pet foods on the market made with "human grade" ingredients.  "These are ingredients that have been inspected and passed for human consumption," says Martin, author of "Food Pets Die For ... Shocking Facts About Pet Food," and "Protect Your Pets ... More Shocking Facts."

For a timely and well written piece on where the blame should fall for much of our current food contamination problems check out this item by Rick Perlstein.  Money quote:

George Bush's Food and Drug Administration—and our other major food-inspection arm, the U.S. Department of Agriculture—are Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan's noble words made flesh. But don't let your family get too close to the flesh. They might get sick and die.

I already cared about this story when I was just worried about my cat but the more I look into it, the more worried I get for all of us.

Update: According to Itchmo, the rice protein concentrate in the recalled products was, in fact, imported from China from Binzhou Futian Biology Technology.

•  tip jar

  thnx

  by Abby Kelleyite on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 01:07:20 PM PDT

  •  Thanks, Abby!

    Well-written and -researched.

    I recommend reading these posts which contains excerpts from USA Today and the Sacramento Bee today that's quite concerning:

    Pet Connection Blog - today

    And Itchmo blog found this in the Sacramento Bee article:

    Vets Suspect 5 Foods, Will Test Soon
    April 18th, 2007

    From the Sacramento Bee article:

    Local veterinarians who’ve tracked kidney ailments nationwide have tentatively identified five more foods, not at this point under any recall, that they plan to have tested as soon as possible.

    The Veterinary Information Network, used by about 16,000 of the estimated 35,000 U.S. veterinarians, noticed the five foods kept recurring in vet-described disease reports, said Paul Pion, the Davis vet who co-founded the service. Pion said it would be premature to name the foods.

    Emphasis ours. We should also note that we hold Dr. Pion in the highest regard and we hope that you will also trust him to do the right thing at the right time. We do.

    Why is releasing this information important if there’s no confirmation? We want the FDA and others to take notice and tell us who else got the rice protein. Dr. Pion shouldn’t have to do this. It’s not his job. The supplier already told us the food went to more than Diamond. Someone already yelled “fire” in a crowded theatre.

    What are these foods?  Why can't we find out?

    by SusanHu on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 01:33:31 PM PDT

  •  this is what we need FDA for

    Tracking down toxic s--- in the food supply.

    Not banning vitamins & herbs, as some of the nanny-staters around here would like.   That's like Alberto Torquemada sending the DOJ after (adult) pornography while various Rs are slurping it up with Abrahmoff.  

    by G2geek on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 01:57:09 PM PDT

  •  I don't know why this didn't get more exposure.

    maybe today.. recommended..

    by ilyana on Thu Apr 19, 2007 at 11:28:33 AM PDT

•  rice protein concentrate

  This information is from a North American supplier, though I think the concentrate is made in China.

  Description:  Rice Protein Concentrate is the concentrated fraction of white rice, resulting from the rice wet milling process.  Rice protein concentrate is a bland, hypoallergenic food ingredient.

  Protein   65%
  fat        6%%
  ash        4.5%
  moisture   10%

  Cost for feed grade...about 50 cents per pound in truck load quantities.
  ****
  Rice protein concentrate is a relatively expensive ingredient for dry dog foods...typical overall ingredient costs for premium dry foods (2001 data) is about 20 cents per pound (including meat, grain, fats, added vitamins and minerals).  Lamb meal, for instance, 2001 price, was only 30 cents per pound.

  by creekobear on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 01:15:52 PM PDT

  •  protein concentrates used in many things

    Thanks for the info.

    I just wanted to make sure that people realize that it's not just used in pet food.  This link is to a site that collects selling and buying leads and shows numerous examples of rice, wheat and soy protein concentrates for sale (all from China interestingly enough) and buyers from all over the world.  Also, the link in the main story to the chinese supplier shows that they sell human food grade rice protein concentrate as well.

    by Abby Kelleyite on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 01:31:54 PM PDT

•  Widening recall on RICE products...

  Check out cnn.com  

  I pretty much suspected this would be in the human food source when the pet food recall first came out.  

  The rice recall is NOT from China necessarily either.

  by Barbara on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 01:27:40 PM PDT

  •  good point about not just about China

    The economic incentive to adulterate protein concentrate would apply elsewhere too.

    by Abby Kelleyite on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 01:37:17 PM PDT

  •  fda makes yesterday's voluntary recall official

    CNN link

    by Abby Kelleyite on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 02:04:46 PM PDT

  •  turns out the recalled rice protein is from Chin

    According to Itchmo, the rice protein concentrate was imported from China from Binzhou Futian Biology Technology.

    by Abby Kelleyite on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 05:35:36 PM PDT

•  Whether it got into the human food

  supply or not, we seem to be quite exposed in this regard.  It's almost like the people who are supposed to be protecting us are incompetent or something.

  by Winnie on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 01:35:41 PM PDT

  •  not just incompetent

    Much of Rick Perlstein's piece demonstrates how republican administrations have cut the funding and inspection ability of agencies such as FDA and USDA.

    by Abby Kelleyite on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 01:43:52 PM PDT

•  Adulteration

  in food and drug products has been around since the beginning of history.  No kidding; it's one of the issues invariably addressed in old herbal manuals, from Hippocrates through Galen to Grieves.  We've been living in a fog of naivete, assuming that our regulatory agencies could protect us, when the market is so huge, open, and generally unregulated.  The more intense the competition between suppliers on price, the more the incentive to cheat by substituting fake or inferior products, especially when the buyers have so little knowledge or control over ingredients and the intermediary producers know that they can plead ignorance and get a rap on the knuckles, at most, from the courts.

  Don't forget Union Carbide in Bhopal.  So what if humans start dropping like dogs?  Do you REALLY think the corporations will be held responsible in any meaningful way?  The only way to stop this kind of shennanigans has, historically, been severe and personal criminal penalties assessed on fraudulent suppliers.  Meaning, loss of life or limbs.  That works, as demonstrated by successive kings from Hammurabi through Henry II.  Anything likely to be implemented by American legislators at this point in time, is likely to be useless.  So, caveat emptor.

  The Cat is quite happy with my reaction to the crisis.  He always thought that raw chicken, salted beef shreds, and pure tuna were more suitable eatings than that canned stuff anyway.

  by cynndara on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 01:54:58 PM PDT

•  Please forgive me

  if this sounds insensitive, but shouldn't the potential danger to the food supply of all Americans be at least as important as a localized mass shooting by a deranged student?  Yet all we have on TV is pictures of poor anguished students and parents with microphones shoved in their faces in the mass media's hypocritical orgy of "sympathy."  We NEED some news/information on this expanding recall.  

  by miriam on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 02:50:58 PM PDT

•  melamine versus urea in testing

  One objection that has been raised to the theory that melamine was added deliberately has been that since melamine is mostly derived from urea, it would just be cheaper to add the urea directly.  One possibility is that melamine scrap is cheaper than urea. As the New York Times reported, the Chinese supplier that supplied the first tainted wheat gluten had been trying to buy "melamine scrap" in online sites.  Another thought is that since Melamine production in China has increased greatly in recent years leading to surplus availability, cheap Melamine might be readily available. Yet another thought I've had is that perhaps Melamine is not detectable in the quality control tests commonly used to spot urea adulteration.  For instance, in the soybean industry, this test is advocated:

  Quick Test for Urea (Qualitative Test)

  Reagents:

  Urease solution: 0.2 g urease stir into 10 ml H2O.
  Bromothymol blue solution: Rub 0.15 g Bromothymol blue in mortar with 2.4 ml 0.1 N NaOH, wash mortar and pestle with H2O and dil. To 50 ml H2O.
  Test paper A: Mix 10 ml urease solution 1 and 10 ml indicator soln. 2. Pour mixture into watch glass, dip pieces of filter paper (Whatman No. 5) in soln. And hang paper to dry. Store dry paper (Orange color) in well-stoppered dark glass bottle in a cool place.
  Test paper B: Dilute indicator soln. 2 with equal portion with H2O. Dip pieces of filter paper (same kind used for test paper A) in indicator soln. And hang to dry as in 3.
  Procedure:

  Stir 2-3 g of test sample in 50 ml H2O and let it stand for 2-3 min.
  Placing 2-3 drops of test sample on dry test paper A, the appearance of blue or green spot after a few minutes of incubation at room temperature indicates urea.
  For detection of urea in a very small, dry particle, dip both test paper A and B H2O and then shake the papers to remove excess H2O by using clean tweezers. Place the papers on a clean flat piece of glass. Place the sample on the papers and cover with another clean flat piece of glass by pressing down gently. Blue spots on the test paper A indicate urea (30-60 sec.). Spots continue to develop and enlarge for 10-20 min. and then fade gradually. Time varies inversely with urea concentration. If blue spots develop on both paper A and B, this indicates alkaline particles.

  I don't know and haven't been able to fund out yet if Melamine would defeat such qualitative tests for urea, but if it would, that would provide a good reason to adulterate protein with melamine rather than urea.

  by Abby Kelleyite on Sat Apr 21, 2007 at 09:42:26 AM PDT

•  EPA on melamine in 1999

  As reported in the Federal Register, EPA proposed eliminating melamine tolerance limits with regard to pesticide residue in 1999 as "it is no longer considered a residue of concern."  It is possible that this change may have signaled an opportunity to companies to manipulate protein content.  

  by Abby Kelleyite on Wed Apr 25, 2007 at 05:53:32 AM PDT