FDA limits Chinese food additive imports
FDA限制进口中国食品添加剂

The Food and Drug Administration is enforcing a new import alert that greatly expands its curtailment of some food ingredients imported from China, authorizing border inspectors to detain ingredients used in everything from noodles to breakfast bars.
The new restriction is likely to cause delays in the delivery of raw ingredients for the production of many commonly used products.
FDA将执行一项新的进口警报，大大扩大对某些从中国进口的食品原料的限制，授权边境检查人员扣留从面条到早餐等各种食品需要使用的原料。新颁布的限制令很可能导致用于生产多种日常食品的原料进口延期交付。

The move reflects the FDA's growing unease with what the alert announcement called China's "manufacturing control issues" and that country's inability to ascertain what controls are in place to prevent food contamination. For example, the agency says that, after weeks of investigation, it still does not know what regions of China are affected or what firms there are major manufacturers of vegetable proteins.
对于警报所宣称的中国"生产制造控制问题"以及无法确定已采取了哪些措施防止食品污染的现状,FDA越来越感到担忧.比如,FDA说经过数周调查,现在仍不清楚中国哪些地区受到了影响,哪些公司是植物蛋白的主要制造商.

Inspectors are now allowed to detain vegetable-protein imports from China because they may contain the chemical melamine. Melamine, used in the manufacture of plastics, was found in the wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate that has led to the recall of 5,300 pet food products.
检查人员现在可以扣留从中国进口的植物蛋白,因为它们可能含有化学成分三聚氰胺(Melamine)。Melamine用于生产塑料，现已导致5300例宠物食品产品召回事件的麦麸和大米浓缩蛋白中发现了这种成分。

Melamine's effects on humans, if ingested, is unclear. In fact, the chemical has not been found in earlier tests to be highly toxic, a fact that has scientists looking for second chemical agent that could be increasing its toxicity.
人食用三聚氰胺（Melamine）会有什么影响现在还不清楚。事实上，在早先的检测中，未发现这种化学成分毒性巨大。

The agency for the first time also said it has received reports, which it has yet to confirm, that approximately 1,950 cats and 2,200 dogs died after eating contaminated food. The only number of pet deaths that the FDA has confirmed thus far is 14.
管理局第一次表示它收到了有关报告，报告称近1950只猫和2200只狗死于食用污染食品。此报告尚有待进一步证实。FDA迄今已证实的相关宠物死亡事件是14起。

An import alert of this breadth is rare. Before this new FDA action, only products from two Chinese companies that exported the melamine-tainted wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate had been detained.
这么严重的进口警报尚属罕见。在此之前，只有从中国两家公司进口的产品被扣留。

Now for the products to reach U.S. foodmakers, the importers will have to prove to the FDA that they are safe. The ingredients restricted include wheat gluten, rice gluten, rice protein, rice protein concentrate, corn gluten, corn gluten meal, corn by-products, soy protein, soy gluten, mung-bean protein and amino acids.
现在如果美国食品制造商需要进口原料产品，进口商必须向FDA证明产品是安全的。受限制的产品包括麦麸、大米蛋白粉、大米浓缩蛋白、玉米蛋白粉、大豆蛋白、绿豆蛋白和氨基酸等。

The FDA has not reported finding melamine in food imports for humans from China, yet it last week launched sample testing "out of an abundance of caution," said chief medical officer David Acheson.
The new restriction may be what's needed to shore up consumer confidence that the FDA can protect the food supply, said Jean Kinsey, director of the Food Industry Center at the University of Minnesota. Without such action, the public's distrust will grow, she said.
According to the alert notice posted on the FDA website Friday, the agency has so far taken 750 samples of wheat gluten and products made with wheat gluten and found 330 positive for melamine or melamine combined with another substance. It also found 27 positives out of 85 samples of rice protein concentrate and products made with rice protein concentrate.