Farmed fish have been fed meal spiked with the same chemical that has been linked to the pet food recall, but the contamination was probably too low to harm anyone who ate the fish, federal officials said Tuesday.

So let’s see … dog and cat food, hogs, chickens, and now fish all having eaten products containing melamine, but the harm to humans is “probably” low. Personally, I don’t care what the FDA or anyone else says about how very little melamine I may be eating with my dinner and how low the risk of harm is, I don’t especially want to eat ANY melamine, thank you very much. The fact is, they don’t know. Actual studies of the risks of melamine in humans haven’t really been done, and the one that was done factored in how rare it would be for humans to consume it. So in reality, we haven’t got a clue about what may or may not happen when humans consumed melamine at any level or over a long period of time. Sure, it “probably” won’t kill me right this minute, but who is to say it isn’t going to cause some other problems down the line? Right now, no one can definitively say it won’t.

What’s really interesting in the article I pulled the above quote from, other than the fact the farmed fish I just bought to try to avoid consuming mercury may very well contain some level of melamine, is this:

U.S. investigators also have learned that the purported Chinese wheat gluten and a second ingredient, rice protein concentrate, were actually simple wheat flour. The flour was spiked with melamine and related, nitrogen-rich compounds to make it appear more protein rich than it was. In tests, nitrogen levels are measured to gauge the overall protein content of food ingredients.

“What we discovered is these are not wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate but in fact are wheat flour contaminated by melamine,” Acheson said.

Yes, wheat flour. Let that roll around in your head a while. Go ahead and get a little paranoid. If you think the US doesn’t import wheat and wheat flour, stop fooling yourself. We do. Like I said, mull it over, go ahead and get a little paranoid.

I never had an eating disorder before, but I swear I am starting to develop one. Every time I wander into my kitchen these days, I look at my food and try to decide which one is going to kill me first. Maybe I’ll start eating the kittens’ kibble. At least it seems to be safe at the moment. Faith-based dining, indeed. :rolleyes: