No one knows where all Chinese exports of melamine contaminated milk powder products went because there is
no transparent international food export traceability system in place. In addition to China itself, there are conduits through
multinational corporations like Fonterra New Zealand, one-third of the international dairy industry, or direct imports from
other countries in the Asia Pacific area, including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand, India that could theoretically have supplied major food companies in the US, Kraft, General Mills, and Mars, with Chinese product. Then there is also the silence of major US food manufacturers themselves as to the supplier sources of their ingredients, if indeed these manufacturers even know the supplier sources further back than who they bought from. The US FDA is only directing some of its limited response efforts at obvious Chinese supplied products. There is also a huge grey market smuggling area which needs to be addressed by more than a few visits to Asian markets in a limited number of US cities.
I join the chorus of US consumers demanding to know where is the US FDA response adequate to deal with the enormity of the possible
contamination here?

The Brits seem to have come up with one horrendous huge but feasible solution: If it's "got milk," it needs government testing; and let
the cost chips fall on those who have earned it, manufacturers and suppliers.

All the more reason for the mutineers here to get busy with independent testing...

Lie or misrepresent, deny, delay, smear, and plant disinformation in the media were all tactics seen in
the 2007 pet food recalls.

I wonder if these companies even know their supply chain more than one level up?  This poisoned junk is passed from one middleman to the next and the next and the next. 

We're hearing the same hackneyed phrases and denials as with the pet food recalls.  Do all these companies hire the same crisis management firms?

With the tanked economy foremost in the news, there is little coverage of the milk products scandal, except for crawlers, that I know of.

"No level of melamine deliberately added to a food product is legal in the United States, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

But the agency said it is conducting a health risk assessment to try to determine if there is a minimal amount that would be acceptable in cases where the chemical finds its way into a product through some other means. For example, melamine could be present in the meat or milk of an animal that was fed tainted feed or it could find its way into food processed in a factory."

THERE MUST BE NO ACCEPTABLE LEVELS OF MELAMINE IN ANY FOOD ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD...........ESPECIALLY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

3cat

You raise an interesting point. The guy that works right behind me just had an attack of stones, 28 years old. Always eating snack things, who knows.

I am sure the CDC doesn't keep track of this, or maybe they do and just don't tell us if kidney stones are on the rise.

db

Until just this moment, it never occurred to me before, but could my two little surviving cats still
be going through this, or did they just after exposure to the contaminated food? Oh, I hope not ...

Now, no, catbird. But when I think of the first, Doozie, I know so. And other looks
in the eyes that say "help me," now I know. Not anything I wish for any parent any where.