FDLI Conference In Brief

Melamine, terrorism wake-up call: FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Director Stephen Sundlof says attention to "food as a potential vehicle for a terrorist attack" increased after it was determined melamine-containing ingredients from China caused the contamination of some pet food marketed in the U.S. in 2007. Discussing CFSAN's food safety efforts at the Food and Drug Law Institute conference in Washington on March 26, Sundlof said, "Something that we are spending a lot more effort on is looking at potential for food to be used as a terrorist weapon." The pet food problem got the attention of other federal agencies, he added. "I was told ... until we had the melamine situation in pet food last year, [the Department of] Homeland Security did not really look at food as a logical place where a terrorism attack would occur. ...They saw the melamine issue and that changed their mind about that." Starting in March 2007, melamine was found in wheat gluten and rice protein concentrates that were linked to the deaths of pets and led to the recall of pet food products (1"The Tan Sheet" Sept. 10, 2007, p. 5)...