FDA Asks if Pet Food Tainted on Purpose

From the AP via the Huffington Post courtesy of AlterNet:

Imported ingredients used in recalled pet food may have been intentionally spiked with an industrial chemical to boost their apparent protein content, federal officials said Thursday.

That's one theory being pursued by the Food and Drug Administration as it investigates how the chemical, melamine, contaminated at least two ingredients used to make more than 100 brands of dog and cat foods.

So far, melamine's been found in both wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China. Media reports from South Africa suggest a third pet food ingredient, corn gluten, used in that country also was contaminated with melamine. That tainted ingredient has not been found in the United States, the FDA said.

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As anyone who reads Real Art regularly knows, I am deeply suspicious of unregulated business because, you know, the profit motive can really inspire some twisted and amoral thinking and behavior. Trusting business owners to simply "do the right thing" is just not enough. We need to regulate business. This situation in China with the melamine may very well be one of those amoral behaviors inspired by profit-seeking. I mean, we don't really know yet, but there's definitely a prima facie case here: we have motive, means, and opportunity, the three legs on which all criminal cases are based.

Bet ya twenty bucks the poisonings were intentional.

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