December 4, 2008
Melamine in Formula
Back in October, I wrote a blog about the various problems that can come with formula consumption, and ”problem number #1″ just became much more widespread and public - formula contamination.
More specifically, the contamination problem that is getting the most press, and is the most widespread, is melamine in formula.
Currently, the debate is raging about how much contamination is truly dangerous for formula fed infants. As far as non-formula food safety goes, the FDA says this;
In food products other than infant formula, the FDA concludes that levels of melamine and melamine-related compounds below 2.5 parts per million (ppm) do not raise concerns. This conclusion assumes a worst case exposure scenario in which 50% of the diet is contaminated at this level, and applies a 10-fold safety factor to the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) to account for any uncertainties. The TDI is an estimate of the maximum amount of an agent to which an individual could be exposed on a daily basis over the course of a lifetime without an appreciable health risk.
As we know, a baby dependant on formula consumes 100% of this food. Not only that, but babies grow rapidly and must burn more energy to stay warm because of their small size. So the amount of food they must consume for their size is quite large. As a result, I would expect the contamination standard for infants to be much more sensitive, preventing food with maybe 1/4 of that contamination level from reaching the tiny consumers of formula. Instead, the FDA arbitrarily decided that 1 ppm (half the amount for non-formula foods) would be just fine.
Dr. Stephen Sundlof, FDA’s director of food safety, said Friday the agency was confident in setting the 1 part per million level for either of the chemicals alone. although there has been no new scientific studies since October that would give regulators more safety data. He had no ready explanation for why the level wasn’t set earlier.
No scientific studies provide certainty about the safety of Melamine in formula! But they aren’t interested in protecting children, so much as they are interested in covering for the guilty and wealthy food industry. It’s a real shame.
As a mother, I gladly go out of my way to put as many non-chemical laced foods in my children’s environment as possible. They deserve better. Chemicals in their food is not going to give them anything good that wholesome flavorful natural products cannot provide, anyway.
Melamine has only one purpose in the food supply; fooling sensors designed to sense if animal feed has enough protien, thus allowing feed manufacturers to put cheap worthless feed out for sale to poison the chickens and cows that are supposed to feed mankind. Thus, melamine is slipping into the food supply, mostly through the milk proteins from cow milk from large, commercial dairys.
I’m a fan of milk, beef, eggs and chicken. But understanding what is happening to the food supply is causing me become more interested in eating locally grown organic foods, and if I couldn’t breastfeed, I would be sure to get my infant’s food from sources that were pure and organic as long as I could afford it. Because the price of discovering that my child was poisoned by the food I provided is too costly for me.
Related iinks:
90 Percent of US infant Formula May Be Contaminated
Filed under Formula by Jessica
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