Inspectors to target gluten and rice protein

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it has launched a surveillance program of all U.S. facilities that use such protein concentrates as wheat gluten to manufacture foods for human consumption, a program intended to prevent the spread of contaminants that have tainted pet foods containing those ingredients.

While stressing that there is no evidence that tainted wheat gluten or rice protein has been found in human food, David Acheson, who holds the newly created post of FDA assistant commissioner for food protection, said the agency wanted to raise the awareness of possible food contamination among U.S. food manufacturers as a precaution.

"This is going to go on until we feel satisfied that we've got it covered," Acheson said. "We'll keep doing this until we're confident that we've got our arms around it."

The FDA, he said, hopes to raise the "awareness of manufacturers about the importance of their supply chain" and, if possible, test ingredients from China that "are still on site."

Contaminated wheat gluten and rice protein imported from China and used to make pet food has led to the deaths and illnesses of thousands of pets, according to the FDA. The two ingredients were tainted with melamine, a compound that is used to make plastic and that gives food ingredients like wheat gluten an artificially high protein reading.

The FDA also said that it was completing its investigation into sources of pet food contamination in the United States, while its investigators were just beginning work with the Chinese government to determine how melamine was put into the wheat gluten and rice protein that was imported by U.S. companies.

Acheson said that FDA inspectors would visit an estimated "hundreds" of manufacturing facilities that use wheat gluten and rice protein in products. The new FDA effort comes after sharp criticism, especially in Congress, over the speed and scope of the FDA's actions once the pet food contamination was discovered.

The new program also follows an FDA decision last week to halt wheat gluten and vegetable proteins imported from China at U.S. entry points until government inspectors can verify their safety. Products from the two Chinese companies that sold the wheat gluten and rice protein to two U.S. distributors have also been banned.