New Year... more melamine!
With the advent of 2009, one could only hope that some of the mistakes and scandals that haunted us in 2008 would somehow die out. Unfortunately that has not been the case with melamine, with thousands of children still sick, more products being put on the contaminated list, and with Chinese authorities trying to limit press coverage by detaining parents hoping to speak with the media. At least the trials of Chinese milk producers are now finally underway – which has led to new discoveries of how deep the melamine corruption spreads. 
The trial is showing that some dairy producers knew about the tainted milk before the scandal became public up to months in advance, and yet delayed informing the authorities. Specifically, the former chairwoman of Sanlu, Ms. Tian Wenhau, recently admitted that she knew in May 2008 of the use of melamine at her company, though authorities were only informed in August. This makes her, among others, directly responsible for all of the children who either became ill or died. Noticeably, family members of the sick children have not been allowed to attend the trial – which seems wildly inappropriate, given what they have been forced to undergo. 
And now it does not fall just on the Food and Drug Administration, but also on the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to really pick up the pace on the inspection front. Only last month did USDA announce that they were going to start inspecting meat products for melamine. Like FDA, they seem to have taken their time in realizing that there might actually be a problem – which could have disastrous results, especially if this level of corruption in the dairy industry is any indication of what might be going on in other areas of Chinese food production. 
To add fuel to the fire, it appears that seafood may very well be next on the melamine list – and yet nothing is being done about it by U.S. government agencies. Research is also showing that fish cannot get rid of melamine as easily as cows or pigs can, and as a result their edible flesh contains high amounts of the contaminant. USDA has yet to respond – and as it relies on exporting countries to do most of its testing, while only doing its own testing on a small percentage of imports, then tainted fish are very likely to fall through the cracks. Hardly an adequate system.
To give yet another example where U.S. agencies have dropped the ball on the melamine front, FDA just issued yesterday a press release concerning the recall of Topaz brand Wafer Rolls because they were found to contain melamine. The problem? FDA’s press release was posted 17 days after the company that produces the rolls, National Brands Inc., sent out their release on the issue. Talk about a delayed reaction!
Let’s not allow 2009 to be characterized by the same inadequacies, fraud, and neglect in food safety that 2008 was fraught with. Rather, it’s time to really call upon our government agencies to tighten up their food inspection standards so as to prevent this problem from jumping the pond into our home territory – any more than it already has.
- Sofía Baliño
