FDA: No sign of tainted imports in human food
WASHINGTON -- Pets in the United States could have eaten food laced with industrial chemicals for years, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday, but so far there is no indication that such tainted Chinese imports went directly into human food. That's based on the agency's examination of records from 2006 to 2007 for all shipments made by two importers linked to one of the nation's largest pet food recalls.
"Could this have been going on in prior years? Sure it could," said Dr. David Acheson , FDA assistant commissioner for food protection . "We don't have samples from last year or the year before or the year before that to test. We cannot rule that out. All we can say is that something was different this time where the contamination led to sick pets."
FDA inspectors have been in China since Monday , attempting to track down the source of melamine-tainted vegetable proteins that since March have triggered the recall of millions of cans and pouches of pet food in the US. Chinese officials yesterday reportedly arrested one vegetable protein supplier. News reports have indicated it was commonplace for such firms to add melamine, cyanuric acid, and other industrial chemicals to inferior food ingredients to artificially boost protein levels and therefore the selling price.
On Wednesday , the Senate overwhelmingly endorsed an amendment addressing food safety in an effort to reduce the chance of similar recalls. It is part of a broader FDA reform measure that stalled in the Senate yesterday .
Domestically, the pet food recall grew yesterday as two manufacturers pulled more products due to worries they were cross-contaminated by melamine-tainted products.
Menu Foods is recalling products sold in the United States , Canada, and Europe that the company manufactured at the same time its plants used contaminated wheat gluten its supplier imported from China .
Another company, SmartPak Canine of Plymouth, Mass., issued a recall for all lots of its LiveSmart Adult Lamb and Brown Rice food, which it said had tested positive for the presence of melamine, according to the Associated Press. The food is shipped directly to consumers and is not available in stores, the company said.
The pet food problems began in mid-March when Menu Foods recalled 60 million cans and pouches of pet food due to wheat gluten containing melamine, an industrial chemical used to produce plastics and fertilizer. More than 5,300 types of pet food products have been recalled since, including some made by US companies that learned that rice protein concentrate imported from China also was contaminated with industrial chemicals.
About 6,000 hogs and nearly 3 million chickens were fed scrap pet food that was later determined to be tainted. The US Department of Agriculture said 300 of the hogs and 2.7 million chickens have been processed and eaten by humans, but it maintains that the risk of harm to humans is too low to issue a recall for the rest. Pet owners, however, have flooded the FDA with their concerns. At last count, 17,000 had called the agency with about half saying their pets died after eating tainted food.
All told, the FDA has tested 700 samples from ports, human and pet food plants, and recalled pet foods. About 400 samples tested positive for melamine, and all of those samples came from two Chinese exporters.
Diedtra Henderson can be reached at dhenderson@globe.com. 
