Public Radio Commentary

April 10, 2007

Presented by Sandy Courtnage

The long, lax wheat gluten journey

Recent news implicating imported wheat gluten in the deaths of dozens of pets has Americans understandably concerned.

The wheat gluten journey is a long, and convoluted one:  the gluten was purchased by a Las Vegas company from China for Canadian and U.S. manufacturers of pet food destined for market mostly in the United States.

When the first news of pet food tainted with toxic chemicals found in gluten became public, my immediate thought was, “only in pet food?”  It’s not a difficult stretch of the imagination to envision the deadly gluten making its way into the human food supply.  And, indeed, the  Boston Globe reported late last week that the FDA cannot rule out contamination of human food by the Chinese wheat gluten.

According to CNN, in 2003 the FDA determined that 6 percent of imports contained toxic pesticide violations and 4 percent of imported fruits and vegetables were contaminated with illness-producing organisms like salmonella.  Since that time imports of fruit, vegetables, and seafood have gone up dramatically while FDA inspections have gone down.  In fact, the FDA inspects less than 1 percent of imports. 

While the national reporting scene focused on the very important and central story of bad pet food and dangers to cats and dogs, it has become clear that the recall did not happen in a timely manner.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that pet food manufacturer Menu Foods received word of pet deaths in February, then tested its pet food on cats, and found a 35 percent death rate.  One wonders why it took more than a month for the recall to go into effect?

While this question remains unanswered, just last week national news commentator Lou Dobbs, CNN correspondent Christine Romans, and Michael Doyle with the Center for Food Safety have all commented and made the connection to human health risks. 

Doyle called America’s reliance on imported food out of control and says we must do a better job with imported food safety.  As reported by Romans, the U.S. imports most of the wheat gluten this country consumes, primarily from Australia and Europe, but China is emerging as a growing producer.

In pet food, gluten is a source of protein that binds ingredients together.  Gluten also is the protein extracted from wheat that improves the rising ability in bread products and gives them a smooth texture.  So wheat gluten is found in much more than pet food.  It is a staple in baked goods such as bagels and multigrain breads, and it’s common in Asian cuisine.

In the quest to find the cheapest ingredients – independent of health risks and transportation costs – we discover a long, lax journey that is a failure on many levels:

–        It’s a failure and tragedy for the pets and their human owners;

–        It’s a quality control failure within the manufactured-food industry;

–        It’s a testing failure of the government;

–        and it’s an economic failure.

As of last week, the FDA had received almost 10,000 pet-food-related complaints from consumers, which is nearly twice what the agency receives in a year for all the products it regulates.

But it doesn’t really matter if you are talking about pet food, baby food or food for adult humans, you can read the labels and still not know where the ingredients or the finished product originated. 

Right now country-of-origin labeling is a law yet to be implemented.  It applies just to meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables, and has been delayed by USDA since its passage in the 2002 Farm Bill.  Now it’s time to consider expanding labeling to include other ingredients and do so quickly – because it’s true, protecting our food supply is fundamental to our freedom, our national security and our health.

For the Montana Farmers Union, I’m Sandy Courtnage.  Thanks for listening.