Jay, apparently these are just GUIDELINES for now--but I view it as the camel's nose under the tent. Not good.
What is even more irritating--apparently the FDA can't even regulate what's in their current territory, namely FOOD and DRUGS.
I'm sure many of you are aware of the pet food poisoning from China. So far, it hasn't created much buzz, but the same poisons (melamine primarily) that have been killing pets are now being found in "people" food. If you eat meat, much of the discarded pet food has been fed to hogs.
Even if you don't eat meat, the poisoned wheat and corn gluten seems to have been used for more than just the pet foods. In a recent shipment of wheat gluten destined for "people" food producers, they found a bag of that poison right next to bags of the wheat gluten. It is likely that the wheat gluten in that shipment was "spiked" with the melamine. Apparently adding melamine makes the affected foods appear to have more protein content--thus, brings a better price.
If you eat bread, cereal, pasta, or any number of other things that have wheat gluten, you might be eating this vile stuff.
Here's the worst part. Last week FDA inspectors were denied visas to China, and not permitted to inspect shipments of wheat and corn gluten bound for the US. (Not that the US is the only affected country--South Africa, for one, is reporting wheat and corn gluten tainted with melamine.) Rather than put up a fuss and push the issue, apparently they just meekly backed off.
And this is on top of the e-coli and other contaminations in recent years.
Just amazing, isn't it? You can say, well don't buy anything made in China. Not enough: something classified as an "ingredient" does not have to list the point of origin. Gluten is an ingredient that barely appears on the label.
The FDA needs to keep their cotton-pickers off of "alternative" techniques, and take care of the FOOD and DRUGS. If they can't police the territory they already have, they have no business taking on more.
