FDA Changes Stance on Melamine

Melamine is an industrial chemical. It is the chemical that has been implicated in the deaths of thousands of household pets when the animal food supply was contaminated. Recently, melamine has contaminated the milk supply in China. Thousands of children were made ill by this chemical. There have been some deaths reported.

A few months ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that melamine contamination in any amount in infant formula was not acceptable and possible harmful. Now, the FDA has changed its stance:

“Reversing a decision made less than two months earlier, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Friday announced an allowable threshold of 1 part per million of the chemical melamine in baby formula, the Associated Press reports.

The wire service reports that the FDA’s decision actually allows for more melamine than has been found in U.S.-made baby formula. The one caveat is that this amount is allowable only if other related chemicals aren’t present, the A.P. reports.”

link: FDA Sets Acceptable Melamine Threshold for Infant Formula

How has the FDA reached this melamine standard? Surely, no longitudinal medical research has been conducted in the short period during which the FDA reversed its position. Therefore, the FDA needs to disclose how this new decision on melamine was decided. What is the basis of this decision?

Catherine Forsythe