[By [By litbrit, who seems to have misplaced her appetite.]
A number of journalists and bloggers have been following the food-adulteration issue very closely, including Goldy at HorsesAss, who to his credit manages to find some dark humor in all this--really--and sends up the FDA's recent update. (You remember, the one they issued on Friday, with food-supply protectors assuring us that humans aren't at risk because even if melamine had got into pork, it would only be a small percentage of the pork, and pork itself is only part of the American diet anyway.) Goldy also points to a new, quietly-expanded Import Alert buried in the FDA website:
IA #99-29, 4/27/07, IMPORT ALERT #99-29,
"DETENTION WITHOUT PHYSICALEXAMINATION OF ALL VEGETABLE PROTEIN PRODUCTS FROM CHINA FOR ANIMAL OR HUMANFOOD USE DUE TO THE PRESENCE OF MELAMINE AND/OR MELAMINE ANALOGS"
TYPE OF ALERT: Detention Without Physical Examination (Countrywide)[...]
PRODUCTS: Wheat Gluten Rice Gluten Rice Protein Rice Protein Concentrate Corn Gluten Corn Gluten Meal Corn By-Products Soy Protein Soy Gluten Proteins (includes amino acids and protein hydrosylates) Mung Bean Protein
PROBLEM: Poisonous or Deleterious Substance Unfit For Food Unsafe Food Additive
PAF: PES COUNTRY: China (CN) MANUFACTURER/SHIPPER: All
CHARGES: "The article is subject to refusal of admission pursuant to section 801(a)(3) in that it appears to bear or contain a poisonous or deleterious substance, which may render it injurious to health [Adulteration, section 402(a)(1)]"
