Perhaps everyone has not forgotten the incident in 2007 where a company from Xuzhou, China that exported cat and dog food to the US added melamine to pet food to pass off as protein, causing a huge uproar in Sino-US relations? Melamine is a very common plastic chemical raw material. Its molecular characteristic is having a lot of nitrogen atoms. This feature itself isn't particularly noteworthy. Such chemical raw materials are abundant, and this feature alone isn't enough to make melamine so famous.
We know that the food industry often needs to check protein content. However, directly measuring protein content is technically complex and costly, making it unsuitable for widespread use. Therefore, the industry commonly uses a method called "Kjeldahl method," which indirectly calculates protein content by measuring the nitrogen content in food. In other words, the higher the nitrogen content in food, the higher the protein content. Thus, this previously obscure melamine, due to its high nitrogen atom content in its molecules, has found a great application.
Melamine (melamine) is an organic nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound, also known as 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine, or 2,4,6-triamino-1,3,5-triazine, abbreviated as triamine, cyanuramide, etc. It is an important chemical raw material, mainly used for condensation with aldehydes to produce melamine-formaldehyde resin, which is used to produce plastic. This kind of plastic is flame-retardant, water-resistant, heat-resistant, aging-resistant, arc-resistant, and corrosion-resistant. It has good insulation properties and mechanical strength, and is an indispensable raw material for wood, coatings, papermaking, textiles, leather, electrical appliances, etc. It can also be used as glue and fire retardant. In some Asian countries, it is also used to manufacture fertilizers.
The biggest feature of melamine is its high nitrogen content (66%), plus its simple production process and low cost, giving adulterators and counterfeiters great profit incentives. It is estimated that increasing one percentage point of protein in plant protein powder and feed using melamine costs only 1/5 of real protein raw materials. Therefore, the main reason for adding melamine is to "increase" the apparent protein content of the product. As melamine is a white crystalline powder with no smell or taste, it is not easily detected after mixing, which also becomes an auxiliary reason for adulterators and counterfeiters to take chances.
In 1994, the International Chemical Safety Programme and the European Union Commission jointly compiled the third volume of the "International Chemical Safety Manual" and the International Chemical Safety Card, which only stated: Long-term or repeated large intake of melamine may affect the kidneys and bladder, leading to stone formation.
Melamine was first used by Chinese counterfeiters in livestock feed production. Adding this substance, instruments detect many nitrogen atoms, inferring high protein content, allowing producers to save on expensive protein powder expenses. Although melamine is toxic, cattle and sheep have larger volumes and stronger kidney functions, capable of metabolizing toxins smoothly. Eating it seems to cause no mass deaths of cattle and sheep, so no one pays attention. Naturally, counterfeiters expand their application range, conveniently adding melamine to pet feed exported to the US. Unfortunately, cats and dogs are much smaller than cattle and sheep, with weaker metabolic abilities, thus the toxicity effects of melamine are greater, resulting in the death of cats and dogs, alarming American consumers. Finally, this substance entered the FDA's vision in the US.
It is said that when Americans discovered melamine, they were puzzled and couldn't figure out why it was added, assuming it was rodenticide contamination. At the time, American news media reports suspected that China's grain warehouses were poorly managed, causing rodenticide contamination. Later, a knowledgeable Chinese person couldn't help but secretly informed the Americans about the secret of adding melamine to food, enlightening the American academic community to understand this complex high-tech counterfeiting process.
Notice that in the Sanlu milk powder incident, the "polluted" products were all the cheapest infant milk powder priced at 18 yuan per bag. Clearly, Sanlu adopted a low-price dumping strategy to capture the last lucrative rural milk powder market. However, selling these 18-yuan bags doesn't even cover the cost, let alone mass production without losing capital. Therefore, Sanlu might have saved costs by purchasing melamine-contaminated raw milk at lower prices, though it's also possible that Sanlu intentionally added melamine. Thus, this nationwide shocking Sanlu milk powder incident was manufactured. Of course, melamine is likely added to adult milk powder as well, because adults have much stronger metabolic capabilities than infants, except for special patients, naturally no poisoning incidents occur. Moreover, if you want to know how widely melamine is used in China's food industry and feed industry, just google "protein essence." In fact, there are now more advanced counterfeiting products than melamine, which can withstand "water-washing tests" and "anti-ammonia nitrogen reactions." In short, your high-tech grandfather can't even detect that it's fake protein. Some somewhat conscientious feed manufacturers reduce costs without breaking the law by using "maggot powder" in protein powder raw materials. Don't be surprised, you didn't misread; maggots crawling on corpses or feces are specifically farmed, dried, ground into powder, and provided to cat food and dog food manufacturers to lower protein costs. If you don't believe me, search for "fly maggots" on Baidu, and you'll find numerous live maggot and maggot powder suppliers. The original practice of using plant protein to reduce costs can no longer satisfy the increasingly black-hearted manufacturers. Who knows if maggot powder has been added to human food.
Fake protein feed is mainly domestically produced, very cheap, focusing only on taste, satisfying the ignorant mistaken psychology of Chinese people who think "if it tastes good, it's good feed." In the future, the medical treatment costs caused by diseases in cats and dogs will be much more than the savings from buying cheap feed. Since melamine can destroy kidneys, the reason for dying from urinary diseases from eating low-grade feed can be found. Think about which brand it could be; you know the answer.
The Sanlu milk powder incident, from a side perspective, reflects China's serious food safety issues. What do we have left that we can safely eat? The black hand of melamine started from the initial cattle and sheep feed market and has spread to today, finally reaching the infant milk powder field. I think hundreds of millions of Chinese people have unknowingly eaten pork, beef, chicken, and drunk adult milk powder containing melamine for many years, unknowingly being polluted by melamine. Has anyone studied the long-term impact of melamine on human health? I think definitely not, because no one would expect that hundreds of millions of people in a country would actually consume plastic industrial raw materials unrelated to food.