Is Chinese wheat used in the Cereal market???Scary freaking thought

[Boxerfan]

I pray they have not been using this wheat source for the cereal market. Can you imagine the horror of our nations children poisoned to death by these fucking CRIMINALS!.:grr:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

1. Bit Alarmist Don'tcha Think?

[WiseButAngrySara]

2. No. It's a thought that I'm sure many have worried about. ...n/t

[Hekate]

3. Sorry, but with the wonders of international trade & lack of regulation...

... we are in uncharted territory. We don't know where the ingredients in our food come from -- I had no idea that the US and Canada would buy a substance like wheat gluten from China -- and so much of what is packaged and canned has a multitude of ingredients.

Wheat, like corn, shows up in nearly everything these days in one form or another. When it turned out to be wheat gluten, I immediately thought of Gerber's baby foods.

I no longer trust our food supply, but this goes beyond my previous dark suspicions.

Hekate

[tiptoe]

27. "I no longer trust our food supply" -- Neither does Prof Stanley Prusiner (Nobel Laureate - Prions)

Scientist: US Beef Not Safe
March 21, 2004 High Plains Journal

WASHINGTON, D.C. (DTN) -- A key scientist told the Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus today that the United States should follow the Japanese model and test every cow for mad cow disease if the meat is intended for human consumption.

"The Japanese solution is the right one," said Stanley Prusiner, the University of California scientist who discovered prions, the infectious agent that causes mad cow disease and its human form, variant Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease.

Prusiner said he would not eat beef "at the moment" in the United States and would eat beef in Japan only if the cow had been "tested by a very sensitive test."

"(Mad cow disease) is the greatest threat to the safety of the human food supply in modern times," he said. "(Variant CJD disease) threatens the safety of the blood supply worldwide."

As a father and an uncle, Prusiner said, he cannot understand why the U.S. doesn't adopt a test-all policy for every cow and bull destined for consumption by humans.

============================================
http://maddeer.org/video/embedded/08snip.ram (Video of testimony before California State Senate)

You and your colleagues have been asked to comment on a risk assessment as it deals with the type of affirmative action...that the USDA..."

Dr Stanley Prusiner: Senator Michael Machado from California

''USDA does not know what's going on''.
''USDA is protecting the industry''.
''SHOULD the state of California step in''

Stanley Prusiner

''nobody has ever ask us to comment''

''they don't want us to comment''

''they never ask''

I tried to see Venemon, after Candian cow was discovered with BSE.
went to see lyle. after talking with him... absolute ignorance... then
thought i should see Venemon... it was clear his entire policy was to get cattle
boneless beef products across the border...nothing else mattered...
his aides confirmed this... 5 times i tried to see Venemon, never worked...
eventually met with Karl Rove the political... He is the one that
arranged meeting with Venemon...just trying to give you a sense of the distance... health
public safety...was never contacted...
Yes, I believe that prions are bad to eat and you can die from them...END
=========

http://www.vegsource.com/talk/madcow/messages/1000316.html

[Eric J in MN]

9. I'd like to know how much wheat with rat poison is being fed to us, too. NT

NT

[w4rma]

21. Not even close to alarmist enough, considering our predicament. (nt)

[robinlynne]

25. did you think there might be rat poison in dog food and kill over a thousand animals in a week?

[rman]

30. It seems you are one of few who thinks this is alarmist...

I think there's a pattern here.

[WinkyDink]

38. Not if they also eat Peter Pan PB!

[magellan]

4. I wondered similar today

Bush** has emasculated the FDA and we're getting more and more foodstuffs from overseas/abroad now because it's cheaper. That's a potentially lethal combination, even if it's NOT done on purpose.

Mind you, our OWN food may kill us off first. (Are they sure the rat poison didn't enter the pet food chain HERE?) A little mad cow, a little e coli....

Geez, whatsisface Repug from PA may have been right -- we could wind up fighting terrorists in our supermarkets with the many holes the Bush** administration has poked in food quality and health standards.

[Historic NY]

5. Why are we buying wheat any way................

we were supposed to be the worlds bread basket.

[Codeine]

18. Wheat gluten, not wheat.

China makes a shitload of it; it's a central part of Chinese cookery.

[nashville_brook]

24. wheat gluten still comes from wheat, which we have plenty of

why ship it all the way around the world to feed to our pets?

[Codeine]

31. Because the Chinese

specialize in this; gluten is a big part of Chinese cooking. They have giant gluten factories while our own gluten facilities are much smaller. It makes good economic sense to import gluten from the world's leading producer of it, no?

[Historic NY]

33. Well its obviously not safe.......

China is backward in many respects, using a form of rat poison or other chemicals w/o controls can cause havoc on the food chain.There does not appear to be a series of checks on the wheat. I don't feel safe knowing now that our dog food isn't safe for Fido. Our government is taking too many chances with our lives by gambling with the food chain. I say only use American products period.

[nashville_brook]

34. apparently it doesn't make good sense -- economic or otherwise. just ask Menu Foods!

[Bluedogvoter]

6. Is Chinese wheat used in Soylent Greens?

I can envision Heston at the Factory exclaiming, "Its Chinese wheat! Soylent Greens are made from Chenese wheat!"

[bainz]

23. I Try

I try to lurk as much as possible, but I read that out loud and laughed out loud as well.

[Kagemusha]

7. For the love of God, would someone just find out for sure!?

I'm practically tearing my hair out at the wild speculation about this. I know there's an awful lot of protectionism for the US market, WTO be damned. I can't see how Chinese wheat would be approved for human consumption in the US with wheat being one of the, if not THE, main stumbling points over every single trade agreement ever conceived. Would people complain to the US about the issue if it just blindly opened its borders to every country's wheat worldwide? Hell no.

But I don't know for SURE, so I'm waiting for someone else to find out, because I have no official data whatsoever or any clue as to where it would be found.

[Marie26]

15. Looks like it

China does export wheat for human consumption. Whether any of this arrives in the US, or is used by US food companies, I don't know.

"China Makes First Export of Spring Wheat for Human Consumption"

(Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 04, 2004

In what is seen as a significant leap for China's agriculture, Heilongjiang Province in the northeast, one of the country's major grain producers, is exporting tens of thousands of tons of spring wheat to southeast Asian countries.

This is the first time for China to export spring wheat for human consumption. ...

After its first export of forage wheat in April 2001, China began exporting wheat for human consumption at the end of last year. China's wheat for export was subject to stricter quality, standards and quarantine test requirements, said Yang Hong, a senior manager with the China Cereal and Oil Import and Export Group.
...

With sharp declines of 30 to 50 percent in wheat output in such major producing countries as Canada, the United States and Australia due to severe droughts last year, wheat reserves in the world fell to the lowest in the past eight years and prices on global markets soared by over 20 percent, said sources from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

http://english.people.com.cn/200303/04/eng20030304_112687.shtml

[Kagemusha]

22. Only in the last 3 years? Hmm..

Well, the story's out there, I just don't have all the details yet.

Obviously this little poisoning scandal is NOT going to help business.

[halobeam]

8. I don't find your post "alarmist"...

"wheat gluten" or even possibly wheat is beginning to look like the culprit here, we all should be smart and steer clear from it for a while, until we get more answers.

I thought of cereal too. When I was pregnant (granted fifteen years ago) I was very sick due to wheat and it took hours of reading labels to find cereal without wheat, let alone other foods that have it in it. I thought of our foods that could have this in it and I'm checking labels for now, and the kids will eat from home until this is straightened out. It most likely will not take too long, and better safe than sorry.

Thanks for posting this. It can be deceiving when it is reported as in pet food, but as more is learned, we have to understand the things we are finding out need further investigation. It's a pain, but if anyone's ever had an allergic reaction that they had to learn what they were allergic to by eliminating everything and adding one food back at a time, (while having an epi pen on hand) then you know this is not going take forever, as did getting back to eating most foods. I hope people are patient and smart.

[EC]

10. My sister just asked me the same question today... n/t

[uppityperson]

11. I was wondering about food contaminants also (not just "chinese wheat")

1 of the taco shell brand turned up genetically modified corn a yr or 2 ago (gee, how'd that get there since it was supposed to be only for animal feed?). This may make a lot of people question food safety again, making the leap from animal food to people food.

[halobeam]

12. needs more recs!

[rasputin1952]

13. I think it goes like this...

The Chinese wheat was most likely not fit for human consumption, or else it was cheap enough to put in pet foods, but not cheap enough to raise it to human standards for consumption.

These companies do this to save a buck, nothing else matters. I don't see how they do it, seems to me Wheat from KS would be much cheaper just in shipping costs?

But I digress...there is a possibility that some of this wheat made it into the human food chain. First, all chinese wheat, (or any other imported stuff that is suspect), should be quarantined where it is, whether on board ship or in a mill, whatever, it should be quarantined and then destroyed. Second, only American products should be used in the food chain...tough crap on those who don't like it, and even our stuff could be suspect. If this craphole of an administration can't get funding to keep the FDA, USDA, etc, it better be prepared for some serious backlash...this is the type of stuff revolutions are made of, (I AM NOT ADVOCATING REVOLUTION).

These people have allowed the ongoing poisoning of our waters, increased pesticide usage and a whole host of problems in not ensuring that food stays safe. They care of nothing but where the next dollar comes from, and the people they do business overseas with are less concerned than our own people are.

Anyway, I figure this was bought specifically for pet food, it is the only way I can figure they could get a cheap deal on the stuff. As far as baby food goes, the standards are still pretty strict on that because of the potential of disaster. If we learned anything from BSE, it is that we need to contain our food supply within these borders as much as possible, and NOT allow these stinking corporations to run over us roughshod.

[roody]

14. Buy organic cereal at a health food store.

Bulk wheat is very cheap.

[Pachamama]

16. I don't think your alarmist at all...I thought the very same thing this morning as I poured the milk

over my daughter's cereal....Organic milk won't matter much if its being mixed with rat poison....Great....

:puke:

[Codeine]

17. Wheat doesn't seem to be the problem.

It's processed wheat gluten (aka seitan), and a fairly specific batch at that, that's contaminated. I don't think we import much wheat from China, but they do make lots and lots of seitan, and evidently Menu Foods was importing pet-grade gluten from them.

Can we all try to be a bit less hysterical?

[Gloria]

19. I freaked out when I noticed that the apple juice I was drinking was made from

concentrate from China! I'm used to seeing concentrates from Brazil, but never had seen China before...

[caligirl]

20. try the celiac diet for awhile, no wheat glutin allowed. CSA/USA web site

can explain this. We keep a loaf of oat breas and some onion rolls for my husband and I, but otherwise everything is Wheat free. Glutin hhee refers to the protien gliadin found in wheat. Its a inding agent in a ton of products, not only food.

Puffins cereal has no wheat in it, McCann's Irish oats and LaChoy soy sauce are wheat free. For breads that are wheat free try glutino brand fibre bread and bagels. They are very good, warm up first. Whole foods sells specially made wheat free biscuits, breads, scones, cookies and pies. They don't ship. Ener-G is another brand of wheat free food products and can be ordered on line.

For a great wheat free resource try the GlutenFreeMall. Lots of options there.

http://www.glutenfreemall.com/?gclid=CNLw_Z7XjIsCFSMhYQodsSfNTA


Online Food & Groceries
Amazing Grains Amy's KItchen Crave Bakery
Ener-G Foods Enjoy Life Foods Gifts of Nature
Gluten Free Mall Gluten Free Oats Gluten Free Pantry
Gluten Solutions Hungarian Bakery "I Can Eat That" Bakery
Kinnikinnick Foods Sylvan Border Farm

[SidDithers]

29. My daughter is a silly yak...

that's what the kids with celiac disease call themselves. We eat mostly gluten-free in our house. It's not a bad diet, but it's very expensive. Like $6 for a loaf of rice bread.

And we've found that foods that just happen to be gluten-free are generally better tasting that foods that are specifically made gluten-free.

Cheers.

Sid

[caligirl]

32. two kids here as well. Also the carb count is much higher in GF specialty

foods. Its a problem for the type1 diabetics with this disease.

[cassiepriam]

26. I am wondering what foods I feed my child might be contaminated.

I put nothing past corporate America. They are run by the same
people running our govt. :(

[LiberalEsto]

28. Are your won-tons safe?

And what about the egg roll wrappers, the dumpling dough, and the fortune cookies?

[cap]

35. Not at alarmist thought, check this article out by the NYT

see my previous post...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=497827&mesg_id=497827

[malaise]

36. Montsano worried me way more n/t

[NewJeffCT]

37. If it is from China, it was likely a competitor that did it

Since all of my in-laws are in China, I tend to follow news stories about China a lot more closely than most here on DU.

Incidents of poisoning a competitor's food is not a rare occurence in China. Most of the stories I've seen through the years involve two competing restaurants with somebody from one restaurant using poison to sick/kill the patrons of another restaurant in hopes that it will destroy their business. But, it's not hard to envision something happening between rival food factories as well.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/09/15/china.poisoning/index.html

That's one incident that I remember because I was in Nanjing in September of 2004.

The big problem with the pet food is that it got through the limited safety screenings in China, and through any sort of screenings here in the US as well.