Tag: melamine

Categories
personal injury

No Melamine

melamine

I couldn’t resist snapping this photo. On a box of dried noodles, the manufacturer (I presume) had affixed the sticker “Made in the U.S.A.” I’m quite sure this wasn’t a patriotic appeal to support the domestic pasta industry. Instead, this was a food safety sticker. After all, if you didn’t get the hint that American pasta was safer than Chinese pasta, the manufacturer affixed a second sticker: “No Melamine.”

So, where’s the footnote? What exactly does “No Melamine” mean? I think there’s a huge difference between “We do not knowingly use melamine” and “Lab tests were unable to detect any trace of melamine in our noodles.” Anyways, these stickers did not convince me to throw a box of noodles into the shopping cart. Nor, would a “No Salmonella” sticker make me want to purchase a jar of peanut butter. It’ll just leave me a bit nauseous.

Categories
personal injury

Faith in Government

Los Angeles Times: Toxic melamine is suspected in seafood from China. Here’s a story to warm your heart before Christmas. Businesses usually complain about high taxes and excessive regulations. So, I was quite surprised when I spotted this quote below:

We’re definitely concerned about melamine, but by the time the fish gets to us, health issues should’ve been taken care of by the government agencies and brokers that we go through.

Oh boy! If that doesn’t make you swear off seafood from China, I don’t know what will. Should’ve, just like government agencies should’ve been keeping a closer eye on the sub-prime mortgage crisis and Bernie Madoff.

Categories
consumer law personal injury

Poison Me Elmo

Forbes/Associated Press: Experts Urge Blood Tests in Toy Recall. Parents worried their children may have been exposed to excessive levels of lead in recalled Fisher-Price toys should visit the pediatrician for a blood test, experts said Thursday. 

So, explain this one to me. Toys that contain lead paint that you are not supposed to ingest gets recalled. However, chicken that contains melamine that is intended for human consumption…well, that’s safe. Huh?Anyways, Mattel will be taking a $30 million charge to reflect the cost of the recall, which may seem high. In reality, an American jury presented with a fact pattern showing that a major American toy company exported American manufacturing jobs overseas to cut costs and then imported lower quality Chinese manufactured children toys that contain toxic lead paint without screening for product safety…well, you tell me what the punitive damages award will be. Think the jury will want to “send a message” to corporate America? $30 million product recall looking cheap now?

Categories
personal injury

Top Poultry Marketing Slogans

The Washington Post reported that federal health officials have authorized the release of chickens for slaughter and sale that had consumed small amounts of contaminated bird feed. These chickens had dined on the same substance—melamine—that had sickened and killed dogs and cats across the nation in recent weeks. You can read the U.S. Department of Agriculture Fact Sheet: Melamine and Analogues Safety/Risk Assessment.

There is very low risk to humans from eating pork, chicken and eggs from animals fed animal feed supplemented with pet food scraps that contained melamine and related compounds, according to an assessment by federal scientists.

Here are some marketing slogans to help the poultry industry kick off their chicken sales:It still tastes like chicken.Now, with Melamine.Melamine? Make it mine.Of course, the bureaucratic solution is to run some formula to quantify the risk that the consumption of adulterated chicken meat poses to human health. But, the feds and the poultry industry are missing out on the big picture if they decide to release the chickens for human consumption because I for one will not be consuming any chicken for the foreseeable future until I’m fairly certain that these adulterated chickens have already passed through the system. These chickens are already tainted. If the poultry industry doesn’t dispose of them, then it will taint all chicken products on the shelf because I am 100% certain that supermarkets will not be affixing a melamine sticker to packages of adulterated chicken so that the general public can distinguish between safe chicken and low-risk chicken.