Clipping Board » Illness Enters through Mouth ─ The information that has been made public is often just the tip of the iceberg...
Author: Zhu Xueyuan, September 16, 2008
Perhaps everyone still remembers the incident in 2007 when a pet food company in Xuzhou, China, exported cat and dog food to the United States, adding melamine to the pet food to fake protein content, causing a huge uproar in Sino-American relations? Melamine is a very common plastic chemical raw material, and the biggest characteristic of its molecule is that it contains a lot of nitrogen atoms. This characteristic is nothing special in itself, as there are countless chemical raw materials with similar traits, but this alone does not make melamine so famous.
We know that the food industry often needs to check protein content, but directly measuring protein content is technically complex and costly, making it unsuitable for widespread promotion. Therefore, the industry often uses a method called the "Kjeldahl method" to indirectly estimate protein content based on the nitrogen content in food. That is, the higher the nitrogen content in food, the higher the protein content. Thus, the previously obscure melamine, due to its molecule containing a relatively high number of nitrogen atoms, became very useful.
Melamine is an organic nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound, scientifically known as 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine, or 2,4,6-triamino-1,3,5-triazine, abbreviated as triamine, melamine, or cyanuramide. It is an important chemical raw material, mainly used to condense with aldehydes to produce melamine-formaldehyde resin, which is used to make plastics. This type of plastic is not easily flammable, resistant to water, heat, aging, electric arcs, and chemical corrosion, with good insulation properties and mechanical strength. It is an indispensable raw material for wood, coatings, papermaking, textiles, leather, and electrical appliances. It can also be used to make glue and flame retardants, and in some Asian countries, it is used to manufacture fertilizers.
The biggest characteristic of melamine is its high nitrogen content (66%), coupled with its simple production process and low cost, providing a strong profit motive for adulterators and counterfeiters. It has been estimated that to increase the protein content by one percentage point in plant protein powder and feed, the cost of using melamine is only 1/5 of that of real protein raw materials. Therefore, the main reason for adding melamine is to "increase" the apparent protein content of products. As a white crystalline powder, melamine has no significant odor or taste, making it difficult to detect when adulterated, which also contributes to the opportunistic behavior of adulterators and counterfeiters.
The 1994 "International Chemical Safety Handbook" Volume III, co-edited by the International Programme on Chemical Safety and the European Union Commission, and the International Chemical Safety Cards only state that long-term or repeated high intake of melamine may affect the kidneys and bladder, leading to the formation of stones.
Melamine was first used by Chinese counterfeiters in livestock feed production. When added to feed, instruments detect a high number of nitrogen atoms, and by inference, a high protein content, allowing producers to save on expensive protein powder costs. Although melamine is toxic, cattle and sheep are large in size with strong kidney functions, able to metabolize the toxin smoothly, and there were no reports of cattle or sheep dying from it, so no one paid much attention. Naturally, counterfeiters expanded its application, also using melamine in pet food exported to the United States. Unfortunately, pets like cats and dogs are much smaller than cattle and sheep, with weaker metabolic abilities, making the toxic effects of melamine more pronounced, resulting in the poisoning of pets, which alarmed American authorities, and eventually brought melamine to the attention of the FDA.
It is said that when Americans discovered melamine, they were puzzled, not knowing why it was added, and initially thought it was due to contamination by rat poison.At the time, American news media reports were skeptical, suggesting that lax oversight in Chinese grain storage had led to contamination by rat poison. It wasn't until a knowledgeable Chinese individual couldn't hold back any longer and secretly informed Americans about the secret of adding melamine to food that the highly skilled American academic community finally realized the complex high-tech process of counterfeiting.
Everyone should pay attention to the Sanlu milk powder incident. The "contaminated" products were all the cheapest infant formula, priced at 18 yuan per bag. Clearly, Sanlu adopted a low-price dumping strategy to capture the rural milk powder market, the last piece of lucrative territory. However, selling milk powder at 18 yuan per bag doesn't even cover the cost, so mass production would surely lead to significant losses. To save costs, Sanlu added cheap soy protein powder to the milk powder as a substitute. While soy protein powder itself isn't a big issue, this time it was adulterated with melamine, a high-tech substance used to fake protein content, ultimately leading to the nationwide Sanlu milk powder scandal. Of course, adult milk powder must also have been adulterated with this high-tech substance, as adults have much stronger metabolic capabilities than infants, and except for special cases, naturally, no poisoning incidents would occur. Additionally, if you want to know how widespread the use of melamine is in China's food and feed industries, just Google "protein essence" and see the results for yourself. In fact, there are now even more advanced counterfeit products than melamine, capable of "resisting water washing tests" and "resisting ammonia nitrogen reactions." In short, even your high-tech grandpa couldn't detect that it's fake protein.
The Sanlu milk powder incident, from one perspective, reflects the severe food safety issues in China. What can we still safely eat? The black hand of melamine, starting from the initial cattle and sheep feed market, has spread to the infant formula sector today. I think hundreds of millions of Chinese people, unknowingly, have been eating pork, beef, and chicken fed with melamine for many years, and drinking adult milk powder adulterated with melamine for many years, all unknowingly contaminated by melamine. Has anyone conducted long-term tests on the health effects of melamine on humans? I'm sure no one has, because no one would have thought that hundreds of millions of people in a country would end up consuming a raw material from the plastics industry that has nothing to do with food.
Why was Melamine Found in Sanlu Milk Powder?
Perhaps everyone still remembers the incident in 2007 when a pet food company in Xuzhou, China, exported cat and dog food to the United States, adding melamine to the pet food to fake protein content, causing a huge uproar in Sino-American relations? Melamine is a very common plastic chemical raw material, and the biggest characteristic of its molecule is that it contains a lot of nitrogen atoms. This characteristic is nothing special in itself, as there are countless chemical raw materials with similar traits, but this alone does not make melamine so famous.
We know that the food industry often needs to check protein content, but directly measuring protein content is technically complex and costly, making it unsuitable for widespread promotion. Therefore, the industry often uses a method called the "Kjeldahl method" to indirectly estimate protein content based on the nitrogen content in food. That is, the higher the nitrogen content in food, the higher the protein content. Thus, the previously obscure melamine, due to its molecule containing a relatively high number of nitrogen atoms, became very useful.
Melamine is an organic nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound, scientifically known as 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine, or 2,4,6-triamino-1,3,5-triazine, abbreviated as triamine, melamine, or cyanuramide. It is an important chemical raw material, mainly used to condense with aldehydes to produce melamine-formaldehyde resin, which is used to make plastics. This type of plastic is not easily flammable, resistant to water, heat, aging, electric arcs, and chemical corrosion, with good insulation properties and mechanical strength. It is an indispensable raw material for wood, coatings, papermaking, textiles, leather, and electrical appliances. It can also be used to make glue and flame retardants, and in some Asian countries, it is used to manufacture fertilizers.
The biggest characteristic of melamine is its high nitrogen content (66%), coupled with its simple production process and low cost, providing a strong profit motive for adulterators and counterfeiters. It has been estimated that to increase the protein content by one percentage point in plant protein powder and feed, the cost of using melamine is only 1/5 of that of real protein raw materials. Therefore, the main reason for adding melamine is to "increase" the apparent protein content of products. As a white crystalline powder, melamine has no significant odor or taste, making it difficult to detect when adulterated, which also contributes to the opportunistic behavior of adulterators and counterfeiters.
The 1994 "International Chemical Safety Handbook" Volume III, co-edited by the International Programme on Chemical Safety and the European Union Commission, and the International Chemical Safety Cards only state that long-term or repeated high intake of melamine may affect the kidneys and bladder, leading to the formation of stones.
Melamine was first used by Chinese counterfeiters in livestock feed production. When added to feed, instruments detect a high number of nitrogen atoms, and by inference, a high protein content, allowing producers to save on expensive protein powder costs. Although melamine is toxic, cattle and sheep are large in size with strong kidney functions, able to metabolize the toxin smoothly, and there were no reports of cattle or sheep dying from it, so no one paid much attention. Naturally, counterfeiters expanded its application, also using melamine in pet food exported to the United States. Unfortunately, pets like cats and dogs are much smaller than cattle and sheep, with weaker metabolic abilities, making the toxic effects of melamine more pronounced, resulting in the poisoning of pets, which alarmed American authorities, and eventually brought melamine to the attention of the FDA.
It is said that when Americans discovered melamine, they were puzzled, not knowing why it was added, and initially thought it was due to contamination by rat poison.At the time, American news media reports were skeptical, suggesting that lax oversight in Chinese grain storage had led to contamination by rat poison. It wasn't until a knowledgeable Chinese individual couldn't hold back any longer and secretly informed Americans about the secret of adding melamine to food that the highly skilled American academic community finally realized the complex high-tech process of counterfeiting.
Everyone should pay attention to the Sanlu milk powder incident. The "contaminated" products were all the cheapest infant formula, priced at 18 yuan per bag. Clearly, Sanlu adopted a low-price dumping strategy to capture the rural milk powder market, the last piece of lucrative territory. However, selling milk powder at 18 yuan per bag doesn't even cover the cost, so mass production would surely lead to significant losses. To save costs, Sanlu added cheap soy protein powder to the milk powder as a substitute. While soy protein powder itself isn't a big issue, this time it was adulterated with melamine, a high-tech substance used to fake protein content, ultimately leading to the nationwide Sanlu milk powder scandal. Of course, adult milk powder must also have been adulterated with this high-tech substance, as adults have much stronger metabolic capabilities than infants, and except for special cases, naturally, no poisoning incidents would occur. Additionally, if you want to know how widespread the use of melamine is in China's food and feed industries, just Google "protein essence" and see the results for yourself. In fact, there are now even more advanced counterfeit products than melamine, capable of "resisting water washing tests" and "resisting ammonia nitrogen reactions." In short, even your high-tech grandpa couldn't detect that it's fake protein.
The Sanlu milk powder incident, from one perspective, reflects the severe food safety issues in China. What can we still safely eat? The black hand of melamine, starting from the initial cattle and sheep feed market, has spread to the infant formula sector today. I think hundreds of millions of Chinese people, unknowingly, have been eating pork, beef, and chicken fed with melamine for many years, and drinking adult milk powder adulterated with melamine for many years, all unknowingly contaminated by melamine. Has anyone conducted long-term tests on the health effects of melamine on humans? I'm sure no one has, because no one would have thought that hundreds of millions of people in a country would end up consuming a raw material from the plastics industry that has nothing to do with food.
2008/09/24 03:45
2008/09/26 04:33