# Contaminated Wheat Gluten in Human Food?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contaminated-wheat-gluten-in-human-food/398367>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [April 2, 2007, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contaminated-wheat-gluten-in-human-food/398367 "2007-04-02T02:00:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contaminated-wheat-gluten-in-human-food/398367/1 "2007-04-02T02:00:11Z")

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[Tainted Wheat Gluten Sold as “Food Grade”](http://tinyurl.com/yo5ter)

> [@](#):
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> Del Monte Foods has confirmed that the melamine-tainted wheat gluten used in several of its recalled pet food products was supplied as a “food grade” additive, raising the likelihood that contaminated wheat gluten might have entered the human food supply.

I’ve been worried that the pets were the canaries in the coal mine. Lets hope that this stuff hasn’t gotten into _our_ food.

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**Author:** ![ArizonaTeach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/45deac/32.png) [@ArizonaTeach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArizonaTeach)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contaminated-wheat-gluten-in-human-food/398367/2 "2007-04-02T02:07:59Z")

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[QUOTE=davidm]  
Lets hope that this stuff hasn’t gotten into _our_ food.  
[/QUOTE]  
My fiance, who has a wicked gluten allergy, and has lived without (real) bread, pasta, cookies, cakes, and so on for years, had a nice chuckle at the irony of other people worrying about gluten…until I reminded her about the dead animals…

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**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contaminated-wheat-gluten-in-human-food/398367/3 "2007-04-02T02:45:09Z")

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See this for more info:

> **[GODDAMNIT! HAVE WE ALL BEEN POISONED? Chinese Company sells Wheat Gluten for...](https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x556595)**
>
> GODDAMNIT! HAVE WE ALL BEEN POISONED? Chinese Company sells Wheat Gluten for Human Consumption.

This is frightening shit.

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**Author:** ![Soapbox\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Soapbox\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soapbox_Monkey)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contaminated-wheat-gluten-in-human-food/398367/4 "2007-04-02T18:55:08Z")

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If any people get sick or die, hopefully the responsible distributors will be sued into oblivion. Then maybe the remaining companies will smarten up and learn not to import wheat from other countries just to save 5 cents per _insert standard unit of wheat here_, thus benefitting American wheat farmers in the process.

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**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contaminated-wheat-gluten-in-human-food/398367/5 "2007-04-02T19:24:39Z")

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[QUOTE=Soapbox Monkey]  
If any people get sick or die, hopefully the responsible distributors will be sued into oblivion. Then maybe the remaining companies will smarten up and learn not to import wheat from other countries just to save 5 cents per _insert standard unit of wheat here_, thus benefitting American wheat farmers in the process.  
[/QUOTE]

Welcome to the Wal-Mart economy.

I’ve yet to hear of any human cases of kidney failure that were directly linked to the tainted wheat gluten except for that case in Ottawa (or wherever in northern Ontario), which was the (rather unsettling) result of a woman trying to “trick” her finicky cat into eating some then-unknown-to-be-tainted pet food by eating it herself to prove to her cat that it was good. (O revolting irony!)

I don’t know whether Menu Foods will be suing the distributor (but I’d think they’d have to if they want to recoup the loss of revenue resulting form this mess) but if any human cases crop up involving human food, lawsuits may be the least of this cheap-ass supplier’s problems.