According to the American Spice Trade Association, the Canadian government has completed its assessment and has concluded that mustard meets the criteria set by the World Health Organization for a priority allergen. Later this month, Health Canada will issue a consultation document to industry proposing the addition of mustard to the list of priority allergens in Canada, as well as some additional changes resulting from comments to the proposed Food Allergen regulations. Physicians and consumers in Canada reported 26 cases of allergic reactions of varying degrees of severity from mustard consumption. Mustard is currently a priority allergen in Europe.
As a priority allergen, the presence of mustard will require separate labeling from spices in the ingredient declaration and allergen control procedures will be required in the manufacturing plant. The Canadian government’s goal is to finalize the allergen regulations by January 2010.
One would think that after the problems with Melamine in pet food and animal feed killing some and sickening many dogs, that the Chinese companies trying to increase the perception of high protein in food products would have learned their lesson. Apparently not.
In recent days there have been reports of several Chinese babies dying from kidney failure and 54,000 more infants have been sickened from milk to which Melamine was added. Several people have also been sicken by food products that contain milk so now the hunt is on for Chinese produced products containing milk, that might have been contaminated.
On November 13, 2008, FDA issues an Import Alert (#99-30) for “Detention Without Physical Examination of All Milk Products, Milk Derived Ingredients and Finished Products Containing Milk from China Due to the Presence of Melamine and/or Melamine Analogs”. For more information about the Melamine concerns in the USA, see the FDA’s Melamine web page.
The discovery of excessive levels of melamine in Chinese eggs has prompted the Hong Kong authorities to expand health tests to include meat products imported from China, a senior official said October 27th. The move follows the announcement late on Saturday that Hong Kong testers had found 4.7 parts per million (ppm) of melamine in imported eggs produced by a division of China’s Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group. The legal limit for melamine in foodstuffs in Hong Kong is 2.5ppm. It is surmised that the melamine may have come from feed given to the chickens that laid the eggs.
South Korea and Taiwan are now reporting having found Melamine contaminated Fish Feed, 94% of which, 583 tons, has been sold. Melamine in animal feeds may affect the animals, but is very unlikely to affect the meat from the animal.
Melamine is a nitrogen based compound used safely in some applications, like countertops and glues, but is banned in the USA as a fertilizer because it affects the kidneys and bladder. Toxicology studies have indicated that human adults would need to consume fairly high concentrations of melamine to see any health effects.
S&S Labs does Melamine analysis by GC/MS (Gas Chromatography / Mass Spectrometry). The Cyanuric acid, a chemical related to melamine, has also been detected in rice protein. Cyanuric acid can be detected using the GC/MS method. Please contact us for more information about melamine testing and pricing.
In July of this year, the United States Department of Agriculture published an interim policy statement allowing the factual statement of the amount of Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Omega 6 Fatty Acids in meat products be placed on the label. This may be expresses as the number of milligrams or grams of Omega 3's or Omega 6's per serving. No claims of relative amount, such as "Contains...", "Good Source of..." or of functionality, stated or implied, will be permitted. For more detailed information, Click here to see the FSIS Statement of Interim Labeling Guidance.
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