Pet Food Wheat Gluten Mostly Imported.

C-SPAN Thursday April 12, Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing on Pet Food Regulations:

A panelist representing the Food and Drug Administration said that two-thirds of America's Wheat Gluten is imported from China and Northern Europe. Wheat Gluten is a product of wheat that had its starch removed. It’s normally used for thickening and binding food.

A contaminated shipment containing Melamine was added to pet food, sickening and sometimes killing dogs and cats. Melamine is an industrial product used as a binding agent and so also is wheat gluten. Oh, the irony.

The contaminated shipment of wheat gluten came from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology, of China, according to the Food and Drug Administration, but they also say their investigation continues.

Senator Durbin asked one panelist, Stephen Sundlof of the F.D.A., if he was aware that contamination was found in wheat gluten used to produce products for human consumption. Sundlof replied that he was aware that there were products manufactured but not sold. The FDA website states that there is no record of human food contamination.

While the wheat gluten under scrutiny by the government is a processed product, there are other foods that contain wheat gluten that are normally not harmful to most people. I stopped eating wheat products myself because I have difficulty digesting it (celiac or coeliac), and I feel better than ever!

The Vegetarian Society has a chart that will help us avoid wheat gluten at http://www.vegsoc.org/info/gluten.html.

A search at the website http://www.foodingredientsonline.com returned 58 types of processed products that contain wheat gluten.

http://www.foodnavigator.com was also searched and revealed 88 articles about wheat gluten. The first article noted that wheat gluten could be used as an organic polymer, which is ironic considering that Melamine is also used in the production of plastic.

According to Wikipedia, “Melamine is used combined with formaldehyde to produce melamine resin, a very durable thermosetting plastic, and of melamine foam, a polymeric cleaning product. The end products include countertops, fabrics, glues and flame retardants. Melamine is one of major components in Pigment Yellow 150 that is a colorant in inks and plastics.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine