EAT ZINC TUESDAY! A little melamine would be fine

A little melamine in your chicken would be OK, said the FDA. Following the titration of it from feed through the food chain, scientists determined the concentration of it was low enough that it would be all right to eat chicken that came from flocks which had eaten melamine.

While somewhat reassuring, it's not exactly the best message to send if you actually wish to discourage Chinese feed vendors from continuing to use it in the global marketplace.

One can envision them surfing the Internet, spying a newspaper report from the Washington Post on the subject, and saying to themselves: "See, Mr. American, it's not entirely fair to condemn an entire program because of one or two slip-ups."

It was only mild misfortune that cats and dogs died from eating higher concentrations of it. If we can just go back to our lab of dirty tricks, it shouldn't be too hard to reformulate things so melamine can go back into secret distribution.

Here's the WaPost story on it, "Quarantined birds ruled safe to eat," inadvertently inexactly worded:

"Chickens that ate bird feed made with a small amount of contaminated pet food are safe for human consumption and can be released for slaughter and sale, federal health officials said yesterday ... That decision emerged from a government risk analysis completed over the weekend involving 20 million chickens that officials said Friday had inadvertently been fed the tainted feed in several states."

Did "government officials" actually check "20 million chickens"? Of course not.

"Even if a person were to eat the chickens for breakfast, lunch and dinner, scientists concluded, the amount of melamine consumed in one day would be 1/2,500 of the minimum dose thought capable of posing a health risk," it is written.

Now, the question isn't just "Is the concentration of melamine so low that it's OK to eat the chicken?" but also "Do you want to eat those chickens?" And how much will such chickens be discounted? Or will the chicken be marked in the supermarket as containing "a little melamine, but approved for human consumption?" Or what if your dog or cat gets that chicken, either off the plate or sent for recycling in a facility that take substandard meats and poultry for grinding into other uses?

Naturally, the chicken won't be labeled. No one would buy that chicken then, except maybe pet food vendors, no matter what the government says.