Melamine in the Food Supply
Chemical Commonly Used to Make Dinnerware Taints Baby Formula
Not many people knew what melamine was before the deliberate adulteration of milk occurred in China in September 2008. More than 50,000 babies were sickened by consuming tainted powdered infant formula. Sadly, there were 7 reported deaths before the gravity of the problem was fully realized. The Chinese government launched a full scale investigation and narrowed down the source of the tainted formula. They also determined that the infant formula contained melamine, ranging from 0.1 ppm to an excess of 2,500 ppm. This was however not the first time melamine made the news. Previously in 2004 and 2007, melamine had sickened and killed an unknown number of pets worldwide.
Brief Melamine Toxicology Profile
Melamine had only been tested in animals at high doses and not at the low doses found in food products in the United States. The high dose test or LD50 test shows that it takes 3,161 mg/kg body weight per day of melamine to kill half a population of rats. Studies have also shown that melamine appears to be metabolically inert (what is consumed is what is eliminated). Originally it was assumed that melamine and its analogues had similar toxicological profiles, but when melamine was found in the diet of the sickened pets in the US, investigators knew the cause of the sickness had to be a combination of melamine and one of its analogues. This was been shown to be the case. According to a study published in the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation (JVDI) in 2007, it was determined that the combination of melamine and cyanuric acid (a melamine analogue) caused the kidney stones and the renal failure that killed the pets that had consumed the tainted feed. The sickened children also had kidney stones (a rare condition in young children) and showed signs of renal failure.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reacts to the Melamine Saga
The FDA is the US government agency that is responsible to protecting public health by assuring the safety, of among other things, the food that the public consumes. As such the FDA is the first stop for consumers when it comes to looking for answers on the safety of any product that has a questionable record. Melamine is however not a new chemical, it has been around for a while having been used in dishes, plastic resins, paperboard, coating in cans and fire retardant fibers. The FDA had even considered it safe in small concentrations for food contact substances use but did not have enough data to state its safety as a food additive.
Melamine Sickens Babies in China
After the melamine sickened babies in Asia, the FDA launched its own investigation into the safety of US infant formula. The agency also released the Interim Safety and Risk Assessment of Melamine and its Analogues in Food for Humans Document to provide the public with more information about melamine. In a public statement released in November of 2008, the FDA deemed US made infant formula as safe concluding that the levels of melamine and its analogues found in the infant formula was below the recommended safe level and therefore there was no reason for public concern. As a part of their mission, in a forward thinking move, the FDA is also looking at other protein containing products for melamine adulteration.
Melamine Found in US Formula
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Science & Nature
Latest Articles