FDA Declares Pork Safe in Melamine Scare

Shannon Weidemann

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In the continuing news about the pet food recall, food fed to pigs at a small number of farms in the country contained melamine. The FDA has announced that they consider any pork from the pigs as safe. 345 pigs that had eaten the contaminated food have entered the human food supply.

In the Saturday statement, the FDA and the USDA said the possibility of human illness from eating swine exposed to melamine remains low for several reasons: "First, it is a partial ingredient in the pet food; second, it is only part of the total feed given to the hogs; third, it is not known to accumulate in the hogs, and the hogs excrete melamine in their urine; fourth, even if present in pork, pork is only a small part of the average American diet."

On Monday, The New York Times reported that Chinese producers routinely add melamine to wheat gluten and rice protein in animal feed products to falsely inflate levels of protein.

Dog and cat food were made with ingredients tainted with melamine and it has been causing kidney failure. Some pets have died.

The other pigs that ate the tainted food will be destroyed and they will not enter the human food supply.