Melamine is an industrial chemical produced from urea. It is cheap because it can be produced very easily and basically for free by dumping urea into the waste gas stream of a coal gasification plant. It is mostly used in the production of fireproof fake-wood paneling.
Last month's poison-pet-food hubbub was the result of melamine contamination (or, at least as likely, deliberate adulteration) at a major gluten producer in China. This may have been done because melamine fools a common test for the protein content of gluten, which would have allowed a cheaper product to sell for more. Gluten is used as a base for animal feeds -- China produces and uses huge amounts for its fish-farming industry, and re-sells a smaller quantity to (primarily Canadian) feed manufacturers.
Melamine, in substantial quantities, inhibits liver and kidney function; organ failure and death can follow and indeed did in the case of several pets (and, bizarrely, at least one pet owner who ate some of her cat's food to reassure the apparently much smarter cat who was unwilling to eat it).
Melamine in chicken feed is an interesting question. Humans are not particularly sensitive to melamine (LD50 is 3000 mg/kg) and the quantity in the chicken would presumably be low to begin with, so the danger of acute damage is probably very, very low. However I am not aware of any studies of the dangers of chronic low doses, so it's not a totally irrational worry.
On balance, I'd believe the FDA on this one, but keep an eye on the story as we probably haven't seen the last of it -- Gluten is ubiquitous in nutritional chemistry, and is stored for years, so even if the adulteration ended today (and it probably won't...) we may see melamine contamination stories cropping up for quite some time.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-05-09 03:15 pm (UTC)Melamine is an industrial chemical produced from urea. It is cheap because it can be produced very easily and basically for free by dumping urea into the waste gas stream of a coal gasification plant. It is mostly used in the production of fireproof fake-wood paneling.
Last month's poison-pet-food hubbub was the result of melamine contamination (or, at least as likely, deliberate adulteration) at a major gluten producer in China. This may have been done because melamine fools a common test for the protein content of gluten, which would have allowed a cheaper product to sell for more. Gluten is used as a base for animal feeds -- China produces and uses huge amounts for its fish-farming industry, and re-sells a smaller quantity to (primarily Canadian) feed manufacturers.
Melamine, in substantial quantities, inhibits liver and kidney function; organ failure and death can follow and indeed did in the case of several pets (and, bizarrely, at least one pet owner who ate some of her cat's food to reassure the apparently much smarter cat who was unwilling to eat it).
Melamine in chicken feed is an interesting question. Humans are not particularly sensitive to melamine (LD50 is 3000 mg/kg) and the quantity in the chicken would presumably be low to begin with, so the danger of acute damage is probably very, very low. However I am not aware of any studies of the dangers of chronic low doses, so it's not a totally irrational worry.
On balance, I'd believe the FDA on this one, but keep an eye on the story as we probably haven't seen the last of it -- Gluten is ubiquitous in nutritional chemistry, and is stored for years, so even if the adulteration ended today (and it probably won't...) we may see melamine contamination stories cropping up for quite some time.