Melamine Update: Nevermind, It Wasn't "Wheat Gluten"

The Food and Drug Administration made two surprising announcements this afternoon about the melamine-contaminated products that are believed to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of cats and dogs and prompted an extensive pet food recall.

• Government officials say they have been wrong about calling the melamine-contaminated product imported by two Chinese firms "wheat gluten" and "rice protein concentrate." These products were incorrectly labeled and were, in fact, wheat flour. The FDA is investigating the possibility that these products were intentionally mislabeled by the Chinese companies.
• Officials have detected melamine and melamine-related compounds in fish meal from Canada. Fish at a number of American aquaculture facilities have consumed the contaminated fish meal. The melamine that contaminated the fish meal was part of the same batch of wheat flour imported from China by the Las Vegas-based company ChemNutra. "Based on the risk assessment, we do not believe that there is any human health risk associated with consuming these fish," says David Acheson, the FDA's assistant commissioner for food protection.

--Adam Voiland