LAWFUEL – The Law Newswire – ConsumerAffairs.com reports that the broadening global pet food contamination scandal has spread to human food. Now it has done so and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has opened a criminal investigation after reports that more than 100 hogs were given contaminated food and later wound up on dinner tables.
The hogs were slaughtered in California’s Central Valley after eating feed that contained rice protein tainted with melamine, the industrial chemical that has sickened and killed dogs and cats around the world.
People who bought pork from the American Hog Farm in Ceres, Calif., between April 3 and April 18 are being advised not to eat the meat, although California health officials said there have been no reports of illness in either people or the hogs. Authorities are trying to track down all the purchasers.
“The risk is minimal, but the investigation is very early on,” said Kevin Reilly of the California Department of Health Services.
Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, said criminal charges are a possibility, although it is no yet known if there was any criminal intent.
