http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....#038;tsp=1

With the hunting season up and running for the past week or so, I’ve come across a few articles warning hunters to toss out all meat within and 8” or so radius of the animals bullet wound due to levels of lead being found in deer & elk meat.

Good god, what’s next!

Additional Tests Show Lead Fragments in Venison Intended for Food Shelves
Minnesota Ag Connection - 12/05/2008

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) announced that random X-ray testing shows lead fragments in venison samples collected from Minnesota meat processors and intended for donation to area food shelves under the Minnesota Hunter Harvested Venison Donation Program.

In response to this finding, MDA will expand the X-ray testing to screen all venison donated to food shelves. Only product that clears the X-ray tests will be distributed to food shelves around the state. Processors who registered with the venison donation program will be allowed to accept product, but will be asked to store the donated venison until it has been tested and cleared for shipment to food shelves.

MDA conducted the X-ray tests to verify the effectiveness of changes made to the donation program after laboratory tests conducted earlier this year found varying amounts of lead fragments in venison collected from Minnesota food shelves. The random testing included samples from processors around the state who signed up for the venison donation program. The testing showed 5.3 percent of whole-cut venison processed for the donation program contained lead fragments. In comparison, roughly 2 percent of the whole-cut venison tested last winter contained lead fragments. None of the firearms-harvested venison donated this autumn had been delivered to food shelves while the state X-ray testing was being conducted, and only product that was not found to contain lead will be cleared for shipment to food shelves.

While in most cases the amount of lead was very small, the contamination raises questions about the effectiveness of the program changes. These changes included mandatory training sessions for processors, and prohibitions against ground venison and venison from animals with extensive damage from ammunition.

“Minnesota sets the bar high when it comes to food safety,” MDA Assistant Commissioner Joe Martin said. “The donated venison program must meet the same standards we set for regulated food businesses.”

According to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), elevated levels of lead in the bloodstream can harm children and adults but the exact level at which health impacts occur can depend on a variety of factors. The most at-risk groups are children under the age of 6 and pregnant women. Pregnant women and younger children are especially sensitive because they absorb most of the lead they take in, and the brains of infants and young children are still developing. Lead is also toxic for adults, but they are less sensitive to its effects.

Operated by MDA in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and state food shelves, the Minnesota Hunter Harvested Venison Donation Program gives hunters the opportunity to donate venison to food shelves. State officials have made no decisions about the program for 2009, but they plan to confer with legislators, hunters, processors, food shelves and other stakeholders in the coming months.

http://www.wisconsinagconnecti.....38;ID=1127

China Follows Nestle in Crackdown on Milk Buyers 20 Years Later

…
Afternoon Milking

According to farmers in Yanqing County, the problems begin with the middlemen.

At 5:30 p.m., Cao Zhengkuan squats in the muddy yard of his farm in Beicaoying village, washes the udder of a 6-year-old Holstein, attaches a milking machine to the teats and flicks a switch. When the stainless steel bucket is full, he pours the milk into a blue, plastic barrel as two cats watch expectantly.

After an hour, Cao finishes milking his six cows and lugs the liquid to the roadside. At 7:15 p.m., a white pickup truck pulls up. The driver loads Cao’s barrel onto the back and gives him a replacement before heading down the road.

Cao, 53, says the buyer still owes him 15,000 yuan for milk his cows produced in April, May and June.

“We all have to go through middlemen,” he says. “It would be good if we could deal directly with the factories.”

Nestle Eliminates Middlemen

Vevey, Switzerland-based Nestle says it has avoided the middlemen since opening its first Chinese factory in 1987.

Nestle buys directly from farmers, the company said in an Oct. 23 statement. The milk is checked at the farm before the containers are sealed and transported to the factory, where it is tested again.

This “ensures the traceability and accountability of the overall supply chain,” Nestle said. Company officials declined to comment further.

By contrast, Cao’s milk goes to an independently owned depot on the outskirts of nearby Dabailao. The Beijing Yanqing Dabailao Jubafang Dairy Cooperative is a two-story, white-tiled building in the middle of a dusty, rock-strewn parking lot.

None of the 42 people known to be detained in the melamine scandal was connected with Jubafang.

“We don’t do any of those dirty tricks here,” says a middle-aged worker who refuses to identify himself. “These kinds of practices have been going on for a while. It only became news because the television stations began to air it.”

U.S. Testing

Delivery trucks carrying plastic barrels, squat metal jugs and larger cylinders enter the yard, where the milk is poured into a 4-foot-tall storage tank. As the containers are rinsed, the water flows under the red-brick wall surrounding the depot and forms a milky puddle in an empty field.

A woman says she tests the milk for sodium, antibiotics and water content. The depot doesn’t test for melamine, she says, refusing to give her name.

“Government inspectors are not involved in any of these processes,” says Chen, the analyst at Beijing Orient. “The inspection standards at these milk depots are relatively poor.”

By contrast, U.S. officials test milk for bacteria and drug residue, and water, protein and fat levels, says Tom Leitzke, director of food safety and inspection for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

See complete article here -
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/.....refer=home

Nestle’s response?

“All Nestle dairy products sold in Saudi Arabia — just as anywhere else in the world — are absolutely safe for consumption. No Nestle product is made from milk adulterated with melamine,”

Wow.

I know Egg Product as the stuff in those egg alternatives like “Egg Beaters” but apparently it’s in a lot of foods:

According to the USDA’s website, Egg Products are eggs removed from their shells for processing and “include whole eggs, whites, yolks and various blends with or without non-egg ingredients that are processed and pasteurized and may be available in liquid, frozen, and dried forms.”

The site explains that Egg Products are widely used in the foodservice and commercial food industry such as such as fast food chains, restaurants, hospitals, and nursing homes. They also mention some of the types of foods it’s used in: omelets and other egg dishes, sauces like Hollandaise eggnog, mayonnaise, ice cream, key lime pie and the egg pieces used in salads.

go figure—-contaminated feed can contaminate eggs…I remember something about this from us hysterical pet owners over a year ago….nobody listened then…hope they sit up and stop the egg imports as we import egg product from China…whatever the heck egg product is…

Melamine-tainted eggs from China reported

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HONG KONG - The Hong Kong government says it has found excessive amounts of the industrial chemical melamine in another batch of eggs from mainland China.

A statement Tuesday said the government found 4.7 parts per million of melamine in eggs from northeast China’s Jilin province. Hong Kong’s legal limit is 2.5 ppm.

China has been struggling to get melamine out of its food chain after the industrial chemical was found in infant formula and other dairy products.

Six babies died and nearly 300,000 were sickened by melamine-tainted formula.

Chinese agricultural officials have said contaminated chicken feed could lead to melamine-tainted eggs.

The Jilin egg producer could not be immediately reached for comment.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Wo.....41-ap.html