So brand names do this kind of thing too?? really? scary.
^^^^^^^^^^^
Traces of the industrial chemical melamine have been detected in samples of top-selling U.S. infant formula, but federal regulators insist the products are safe. The Food and Drug Administration said last month it was unable to identify any melamine exposure level as safe for infants, but a top official said it would be a "dangerous overreaction" for parents to stop feeding infant formula to babies who depend on it.
"The levels that we are detecting are extremely low," said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "They should not be changing the diet. If they've been feeding a particular product, they should continue to feed that product. That's in the best interest of the baby."
Melamine is the chemical found in Chinese infant formula — in far larger concentrations — that has been blamed for killing at least three babies and making at least 50,000 others ill.
Previously undisclosed tests, obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the FDA has detected melamine in a sample of one popular formula and the presence of cyanuric acid, a chemical relative of melamine, in the formula of a second manufacturer.
Separately, a third major formula maker told AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula.
The three firms — Abbott Laboratories, Nestle and Mead Johnson — manufacture more than 90 percent of all infant formula produced in the United States.
The FDA and other experts said the melamine contamination in U.S.-made formula had occurred during the manufacturing process, rather than intentionally.
The U.S. government quietly began testing domestically produced infant formula in September, soon after problems with melamine-spiked formula surfaced in China.
Sundlof said there have been no reports of human illness in the United States from melamine, which can bind with other chemicals in urine, potentially causing damaging stones in the kidney or bladder and, in extreme cases, kidney failure.
Melamine is used in some U.S. plastic food packaging and can rub off onto what we eat; it's also contained in a cleaning solution used on some food processing equipment and can leach into the products being prepared.
Sundlof told the AP the positive test results "so far are in the trace range, and from a public health or infant health perspective, we consider those to be perfectly fine."
That's different from the impression of zero tolerance the agency left on Oct. 3, when it stated: "FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns."
FDA scientists said then that they couldn't set an acceptable level of melamine exposure in infant formula because science hadn't had enough time to understand the chemical's effects on infants' underdeveloped kidneys. Plus, there is the complicating factor that infant formula often constitutes a newborn's entire diet.
The agency added, however, that its position did not mean that any exposure to a detectable level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula would result in harm to infants.
Still, the announcement was widely interpreted by manufacturers, the news media and Congress to mean that infant formula that tested positive at any level could not be sold in the United States.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association, for example, told its members: "FDA could not identify a safe level for melamine and related compounds in infant formula; thus it can be concluded they will not accept any detectable melamine in infant formula."
It was not until the AP inquired about tests on domestic formula that the FDA articulated that while it couldn't set a safe exposure for infants, it would accept some melamine in formula — raising the question of whether the decision to accept very low concentrations was made only after traces were detected.
On Sunday, Sundlof said the agency had never said, nor implied, that domestic infant formula was going to be entirely free of melamine. He said he didn't know if the agency's statements on infant formula had been misinterpreted.
In China, melamine was intentionally dumped into watered-down milk to trick food quality tests into showing higher protein levels than actually existed. Byproducts of the milk ended up in infant formula, coffee creamers, even biscuits.
The concentrations of melamine there were extraordinarily high, as much as 2,500 parts per million. The concentrations detected in the FDA samples were 10,000 times smaller — the equivalent of a drop in a 64-gallon trash bin.
There would be no economic advantage to spiking U.S.-made formula at the extremely low levels found in the FDA testing. It neither raises the protein count nor saves valuable protein, said University of California, Davis chemist Michael Filigenzi, a melamine detection expert.
According to FDA data for tests of 77 infant formula samples, a trace concentration of melamine was detected in one product — Mead Johnson's Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron. An FDA spreadsheet shows two tests were conducted on the Enfamil, with readings of 0.137 and 0.14 parts per million.
Three tests of Nestle's Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron detected an average of 0.247 parts per million of cyanuric acid, a melamine byproduct.
The FDA said last month that the toxicity of cyanuric acid is under study, but that meanwhile it is "prudent" to assume that its potency is equal to that of melamine.
And while the FDA said tests of 18 samples of formula made by Abbott Laboratories, including its Similac brand, did not detect melamine, spokesman Colin McBean said some company tests did find the chemical. He did not identify the specific product or the number of positive tests.
McBean did say the detections were at levels far below the health limits set by all countries in the world, including Taiwan, where the limit is 0.05 parts per million.
"We're talking about trace amounts right here, and you know there's a lot of scientific bodies out there that say low levels of melamine are always present in certain types of foods," said McBean.
Mead Johnson spokeswoman Gail Wood said her company's in-house tests had not detected any melamine, and that the company had not been informed of the FDA test results, even during a confidential agency conference call Monday with infant formula makers about melamine contamination.
The FDA tests also detected melamine in two samples of nutritional supplements for very sick children who have trouble digesting regular food. Nestle's Peptamen Junior medical food showed 0.201 and 0.206 parts per million of melamine while Nestle's Nutren Junior-Fiber showed 0.16 and 0.184 parts per million.
The agency said that while there are no established exposure levels for infant formula, pediatric medical food — often used in feeding tubes for very sick, young children — can have 2.5 parts per million of melamine, just like food products other than infant formula.
The head of manufacturing for Nestle Nutrition in North America, Walter Huber, said in an interview that the company took samples alongside FDA officials who visited a manufacturing plant, and that those samples showed similar results to what FDA found for the two pediatric medical foods. Huber added that Nestle didn't fund cyanuric acid in any of the samples.
The FDA shared its results with Nestle a few weeks ago, Huber said. He said he wasn't sure whether Nestle had tested other of its products beyond what it did related to the FDA.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who heads a panel that oversees the FDA budget, said the agency was taking a "marketplace first, science last" approach.
"The FDA should be insisting on a zero-tolerance policy for melamine in domestic infant formula until it is able to determine conclusively based on sound independent science that the trace levels would not pose a health risk to infants," DeLauro said.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., a frequent critic of the FDA, said: "If no safe level of melamine has been established for consumption by children, then the FDA should immediately recall any formula that has tested positive for even trace amounts of the contaminant."
Several medical experts said trace concentrations would be diluted even in an infant, and are highly unlikely to be harmful.
"It's just a tiny amount, it's very unlikely to cause stones," said Stanford University Medical School pediatrics professor Dr. Paul Grimm.
Dr. Jerome Paulson, an associate professor of pediatrics at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., said he didn't think the FDA's decision was unreasonable. He added, however, that the agency should research the impacts of long-term, low-dose exposure, "and not just assume it's safe, and then 15 years from now find out that it's not."
___
On the Net:
The FDA's melamine guidance: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/melamine.html
- Re: FDA finds traces of melamine in US infant formula!posted on 11/26/2008
East or West, Melamine Is The Best. - posted on 11/27/2008
过氧化甲苯酰是一种什么化学物质?
10月20日,南方周末记者在广州某超市和某菜市场,随机购买了三种面粉,送往广州市质量监督检测研究院和广州分析测试中心进行三聚氰胺的检测。10月30日,上述两处检测结果出来了,所有样品均不含三聚氰胺,但其中一样品中过氧化苯甲酰(增白剂的主要成份)超标。
面粉行业中普遍使用的过氧化苯甲酰具有强氧化作用,它可以缓慢地氧化面粉中的叶黄素、胡萝卜素,使其由略带黄色变为雪白,同时面粉原有的麦香味会消失,散发出“漂白剂的味儿”。南方周末记者在调查中发现,这是一种极具争议的面粉添加剂。坚持使用与反对使用的两派争论由来已久,裹挟了从民间到官方,从企业到专家的各个层面。
1986年,在商业部粮油工业局局长王瑞元的推动下,商业部在新颁的小麦粉标准里,允许添加过氧化苯甲酰,沿用至今。卫生部同步将过氧化苯甲酰列入了《食品添加剂使用卫生标准》。允许每公斤添加60毫克过氧化苯甲酰。
但后来王瑞元看到白得异样的面食,都不敢吃。他叫家里的保姆绝对不能买加增白剂的面粉,他在外面也尽量不吃面食。之所以对增白剂的态度产生180°大转变,是因为他后来到国外考察时,发现挪威已禁用增白剂;1997年,欧盟正式禁用;澳洲和新西兰也随后禁用。王瑞元认为,目前欧盟已全面禁用,美国虽然未限量使用,但“法制观念强,企业不会乱来”。国内的面粉,则越加越白,甚至“像瓷一样白,让人不敢吃”。随之,假冒伪劣也越来越多,一白遮百丑,出现了以次充好。王瑞元还听闻,有地方粮食局专门生产不加过氧化苯甲酰的面粉,过年时当作福利,供应给粮食局职工。
似乎是自己亲手打开了潘多拉魔盒,王瑞元内心沉重:“如果当初我不同意加的话,今天就没有这个问题了。”从2000年开始,他在各种粮油工业会和粮食行业会上都呼吁企业禁用面粉增白剂。此时,他已从国内贸易部工业司司长位置退休,担任中国粮食行业协会常务副会长、中国粮油学会常务副理事长。“订标准时,我有责任。现在有责任提出取消它,否则愧对老百姓。在有生之年,如果看不到禁用,死不瞑目!”70岁的王瑞元对南方周末记者说。
以国内面粉龙头企业、中国粮食行业协会、国家粮食局为主的主禁方一致认为,过氧化苯甲酰仅改变面粉外观,却有“致癌作用,欧盟等国已经禁用”。还破坏了面粉中叶酸等微量营养素,增加人的肝脏负担。对于肝功能衰竭的人和肝功能损伤患者,因其生物转化机能减弱,解毒能力差,食用含有超量增白剂的面粉显然是不适宜。即使对于肝功能健全的人,长期食用含有超量增白剂的面粉,也会造成苯慢性中毒,引起神经衰弱、头晕乏力等。
反对禁用方以食品添加剂企业、食品添加剂标准化委员会、卫生部为主。
Please paste HTML code and press Enter.
(c) 2010 Maya Chilam Foundation