Contaminated animal-feed

[Nikki]

Thought this might be of interest to somebody.

---

Ever since pet food contaminated with an industrial chemical was traced to shipments of wheat flour from China, U.S. officials have concentrated on cracking down on imports.

It turns out the problem was closer to home, too.

U.S. officials said Wednesday that a manufacturing plant in Ohio was using the same banned substance, melamine, to make binding agents that ended up in feed for farmed fish, shrimp and livestock.

The problem surfaced after a distributor, concerned about what was in its feed after the reports from China, sent the product to a private laboratory for testing.

The melamine was used by Tembec BTLSR, a Canadian forest products company with a small chemical plant in Toledo, Ohio, to make binding agents that keep pellets of animal feed together, said David Acheson, assistant commissioner for food protection at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Read full artcile here:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/31/ ... -65273.php

[ohareward]

I am not sure if it is the same product, but we have a medium density fibre board (MDF) that is coated with melamine. It is used for making modular kitchens and other cabinetry. Another name is whiteboard. You never know what manufacturers will put in their products. It's like putting animal stuff in feed to feed back to animals. (Mad cow desease). A few years ago some German wine makers were found putting anti-freeze in the wine. I can't remember what it was supposed to do.

Robin

[Jack]

Gidday

What's wrong with anti freeze, you have probably got it in your shampoos and the like and wasing yourself with it.

[Nikki]

Gidday

What's wrong with anti freeze, you have probably got it in your shampoos and the like and wasing yourself with it.

Now there's a solid argument for the 'not washing your hair' discussion.

[Wombat]

I am not sure if it is the same product, but we have a medium density fibre board (MDF) that is coated with melamine. It is used for making modular kitchens and other cabinetry. Another name is whiteboard. You never know what manufacturers will put in their products. It's like putting animal stuff in feed to feed back to animals. (Mad cow desease). A few years ago some German wine makers were found putting anti-freeze in the wine. I can't remember what it was supposed to do.

Robin

Yes mate! Same stuff....sort of.

The stuff we refer to as "melamine" is actually the thermosetting resin, melamine formaldehyde. melamine is the white powder that is reacted with formaldehyde to make the resin. The fun bit is if you heat it up to decomposition (ie it is involved in a fire) it emits cyanide fumes.

I used to work with it when I worked in the chemical industry, we made melamine formaldehyde resins used in the manufacture of the whiteboard.

Nev