| The
latest news about the use of melamine in Chinese seafood
is alarming to U.S. consumers. Not long ago, revelations
about Chinese use of melamine in dairy products to “trick”
protein analyses generated considerable concern primarily
in Asia, where some babies had been poisoned. Before that,
pet foods had been found to have been contaminated. Now,
news about the use of melamine in some Chinese aquaculture
feeds reveals possible significant contamination of exported
fish products over the last six years or more.
Melamine refers to both a chemical and to a resin that is
produced from it. Human ingestion of melamine is implicated
in reproductive damage, and bladder or kidney stones, which
can lead to bladder cancer. Melamine has a high nitrogen
content that allows it to mimic protein, which has led to
some Chinese companies putting it into feedstock as an extremely
cheap way of falsely boosting protein content readings.
Recent reports have shown that melamine is being used by
some companies in China to boost the protein content readings
in feedstock being given to cultured seafood. This concerns
U.S. consumers, since more than 80 percent of the seafood
in the United States is imported, and by volume, China is
the largest exporter of seafood to the U.S.
China
exports significant amounts of shrimp and catfish products,
representing two of the 10 most consumed seafood products
in the U.S. In fact, China is the world's largest producer
of farm-raised seafood, exporting billions of dollars worth
of shrimp, catfish, tilapia, salmon and other fish. The
U.S. imported about $2 billion of seafood products from
China in 2007, about double the volume of four years earlier,
according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The
use of melamine to falsely boost feed protein analyses has
been revealed to be, unfortunately, fairly widespread in
Chinese animal culture systems. However, unlike in cows
and pigs, the edible flesh in fish that have been fed melamine
contains residues of the nitrogen-rich substance. Recent
studies conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s
(FDA) Animal Drugs Research Center found disturbing levels
of melamine in certain fish. The report states that the
FDA’s Animal Drugs Research Center found that trout,
tilapia, and catfish which were raised on melamine-tainted
feed contained concentrations of the toxic chemical of up
to a whopping 200 parts per million (ppm), which is more
than 80 times the maximum “tolerable” level
the FDA has set for safe human consumption.
U.S. importers typically rely on government inspections,
and on exporters, to ensure the fish they buy is safe. In
the U.S., commercial fish farms have to use feed from a
handful of approved suppliers, but in China, there are thousands
of sources for feed. Melamine has been used by an unknown
number of these suppliers, and some Chinese feed suppliers
are no longer denying the commonality of melamine spiking.
Fifteen feed suppliers in various parts of China were contacted
by reporters. Most of them declined to comment or said they
didn't add melamine, but some of them said the practice
of spiking feed with it had been going on for at least the
last six years, with inspectors checking some types of feed
products more tightly than others. The US FDA is not yet
testing for melamine in seafood.
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