Hey all,

I read this in a local newsgroup today:
"Listening to the news, I am now hearing of some cats and dogs dying
because of toxic substances found in pet foods. The poisons seem to
come from wheat gluten imported from China."

I was wondering if this could ever happen from the wheat gluten we buy
to make seitan.

Come to think of it, if wheat gluten can be infected by poison, bugs
or whatever, I'm also wondering if it's not how I ended up dealing
with Indian meal moths in my apartment for the past 2 years or so.

Viviane

On Apr 2, 10:52 am, "Viviane" > wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> I read this in a local newsgroup today:
> "Listening to the news, I am now hearing of some cats and dogs dying
> because of toxic substances found in pet foods. The poisons seem to
> come from wheat gluten imported from China."
>
> I was wondering if this could ever happen from the wheat gluten we buy
> to make seitan.
>
> Come to think of it, if wheat gluten can be infected by poison, bugs
> or whatever, I'm also wondering if it's not how I ended up dealing
> with Indian meal moths in my apartment for the past 2 years or so.
>
> Viviane

Viviane, I think someone added the poison to the gluten. That's one
theory out there now, at any rate.... perhaps accidently or perhaps a
disgruntled employee did it on purpose to try and hurt the company.
Moths and grubs can occur in grains and seeds, but they don't really
hurt anything. My parakeet seeds often grow larvae in the bird's
water, and I have had moths in all kinds of meal. Usually it's already
in the product when you buy it. That won't hurt you, but being
vegetarian, you may not want to eat the bugs. Concerning poison, if
someone purposely poisons food, no food is safe. They could poison
Tylenol like they did about 20 years ago with cyanide, or put rat
poison in your food from the factory or locally. Odds seem pretty low,
but there's always a chance. Other than checking the seals on food, I
don't know of a way to guard against it. Even then, if it came from
the factory tainted, you'll still get poisoned.

It does appear from the recalls of pet food and peanut butter a while
back, that there are just a few companies actually making the
products, and they then attach someone's label on it. It seems strange
Peter Pan and the Walmart much cheaper brand of peanut butter were
both made by the ConAgra plant and all of it was recalled. I wonder
why I should pay twice as much for the Peter Pan peanut butter if it's
the same stuff. Apparently a lot of dog food is pretty much the same
stuff too. In fact, it is often the most expensive stuff that has
problems. I remember Perrier water. Huge recall after they had
poisoned their water accidently by not rinsing their equipment well
enough. Strange that should ever happen since people buy bottled water
just to get away from that potential. I never bought another bottle of
Perrier water after that...and never will that's for sure. dkw

Hey dkw, thanks for your reply.

> Viviane, I think someone added the poison to the gluten. That's one
> theory out there now, at any rate....

Anyway, I hope it's an isolated and exceptional case.

> Moths and grubs can occur in grains and seeds, but they don't really
> hurt anything.

No, they don't hurt anything but they can be very annoying and
difficult to get rid of. My point is that it seems food inspection may
be deficient if poison and bugs manage to get in there before we buy
it.

Cheers,

Viviane

On Apr 14, 7:35 pm, "Viviane" > wrote:
> Hey dkw, thanks for your reply.
>
> > Viviane, I think someone added the poison to the gluten. That's one
> > theory out there now, at any rate....
>
> Anyway, I hope it's an isolated and exceptional case.
>
> > Moths and grubs can occur in grains and seeds, but they don't really
> > hurt anything.
>
> No, they don't hurt anything but they can be very annoying and
> difficult to get rid of. My point is that it seems food inspection may
> be deficient if poison and bugs manage to get in there before we buy
> it.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Viviane

Perhaps, but I am not so concerned about the bugs. It's like somone
said, would you rather drink water from a pond that had live fish in
it or no fish. The answer is live fish, because if fish can't live in
it, it's possibly poison. The alternative to occasional eggs in grain
is that they will use pesticides around it and possibly contaminate
the food. I prefer natural food. The less anyone does to it the
better. In fact, I was wishing I could buy farina without the added
iron. I don't need the iron and all brands I find have 45% of the
daily requirement per serving. Problem is I eat about 6 daily
servings. dkw

> On Apr 2, 10:52 am, "Viviane" > wrote:
>
> > Hey all,
>
> > I read this in a local newsgroup today:
> > "Listening to the news, I am now hearing of some cats and dogs dying
> > because of toxic substances found in pet foods. The poisons seem to
> > come from wheat gluten imported from China."
>
> > I was wondering if this could ever happen from the wheat gluten we buy
> > to make seitan.

There was a follow-up about this on Alternet yesterday. Seems my
concerns are legitimate after all.
"The recent discovery of an industrial chemical in animal feed and pet
food imported from China exposes the inherent weakness of an
industrial global food system designed to benefit multinational
agribusiness companies."

The rest of the article is he http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/52789/

Viviane

Viviane > wrote in
oups.com:

>> On Apr 2, 10:52 am, "Viviane" > wrote:
>>
>> > Hey all,
>>
>> > I read this in a local newsgroup today:
>> > "Listening to the news, I am now hearing of some cats and dogs
>> > dying because of toxic substances found in pet foods. The poisons
>> > seem to come from wheat gluten imported from China."
>>
>> > I was wondering if this could ever happen from the wheat gluten we
>> > buy to make seitan.
>
> There was a follow-up about this on Alternet yesterday. Seems my
> concerns are legitimate after all.
> "The recent discovery of an industrial chemical in animal feed and pet
> food imported from China exposes the inherent weakness of an
> industrial global food system designed to benefit multinational
> agribusiness companies."
>
> The rest of the article is he
> http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/52789/
>
> Viviane
>

FWIW

I emailed Hogdson Mill about this, as I use their wheat gluten when
making bread. I got this in reply:

Marsha Carpenter >
May 7
Thank you for your inquiry. Hodgson Mill has written confirmation from
our wheat gluten supplier that the supply chain is clean. Our supplier is
US based and the gluten is not from China.

Hodgson Mill grains are from North America.

Marsha Carpenter
Consumer Relations
Hodgson Mill, Inc.
1100 Stevens Avenue
Effingham, IL 62401
800-525-0177 ext. 239
www.hodgsonmill.com


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