Dear President-Elect Obama,

We’ve been saving this letter until we got closer to the inauguration because, with the selection of cabinet members and press conferences, we know you’ve been very busy lately and we didn’t want this note to get lost in the shuffle. Now that we’re less than a month from your first, history-making day as president, let’s get started. First off, we’d like to again say congratulations—the nation really believes in you. Good luck on your first hundred days in the White House.

Now let’s get to the meat of the matter, because, as you already seem to know, you’ve got a lot of work to do. We at KeepOurFoodSafe.org and our readers would like to let you know that you’ve got a big problem you have to solve, and in a word, it’s food.

Over the past several years, we’ve seen a growing number of farm animal welfare challenges and food safety crises. Within the past year alone, we experienced the largest U.S. recall of beef products in American history. Not since the 1960s have Americans been as concerned about their food as they are today. After two Chinese melamine crises in the past two years—first in pet food and then in milk powder and eggs—consumers are deeply worried about imported food stuffs and how they are inspected. While many organizations have been calling for years for a reorganization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies to create a single, centralized food inspection authority, it now falls on your shoulders to make that happen. And it must happen if you’re to be successful in keeping our nation’s food supply safe.

We’d also ask you to take actions to solve the growing shortage of food supply and public health veterinarians. No other profession plays a more crucial role in food safety than veterinarians, and we seem to be running out of them. Currently, dozens of rural, agricultural counties are without a single large-animal veterinarian to treat their livestock and chickens. A recent study forecasts that this shortage will only get worse; the demand for farm veterinarians is projected to increase by 12 to 13 percent annually while the availability of those veterinarians will likely decrease by 4 to 5 percent every year.

There are several proposed federal programs that would address this growing shortage of veterinarians, including two competitive grant programs—the School of Veterinary Medicine Grant Program and the Agricultural Biosecurity Grant Program—that would fund expansions at veterinary colleges to increase their output of public health veterinarians and another—the National Veterinary Medical Service Act(NVMSA)—that would repay the college loans of young veterinarians who choose to work in underserved geographic and professional areas of veterinary medicine. These programs have been authorized by Congress, but need to be funded adequately VPHWEA still awaits the approval of Congress. These programs need to become a reality if we stand a chance of turning the tide.

To make the situation even worse, veterinarians will soon have fewer tools to keep our food supply safe unless you take action. The Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD) is expected to close this year due to lack of funding. FARAD offers veterinarians information about the amount of time that drugs, toxins and other contaminants require to be metabolized by farm animals before the animal or animal product like milk is safe for Americans to consume. Obviously, if FARAD closes down, veterinarians will lose a resource that helps them keep Americans safe from contaminated meats. It’s not an expensive program ($2.5 million a year); funding must be found to save FARAD.

There is, of course, more that needs to be done to bolster America’s food safety systems and ensure the quality and safety of our food supplies going forward. We’ll keep you posted on those challenges as they arise. But we are confident that, with your help and support, the solutions we’ve listed in this letter will help us begin to address this critical issue. We at KeepYourFoodSafe.org wish you well. The country needs your leadership.

Sincerely,

KeepOurFoodSafe.org

Lately, it seems like melamine contamination has been in the headlines more than celebrities. But the government has publically assured the American people that measures are now being taken by both the United States and China to eliminate the contaminant’s presence in our food. In response to the recent melamine discoveries, the United States will hold Chinese imports containing milk until tests prove they have not been contaminated with melamine.

Remember, melamine is a chemical added to products to increase the test results for nitrogen content so that, when tested, the food appears to have adequate or high levels of protein. Melamine was first detected in pet food in 2007, and more recently, it was found in infant formula after more than 50,000 Chinese infants were sickened. In just the past few days, melamine traces have been found in infant formula in the U.S., although the FDA says that the trace amounts found are too small to cause concern for risk and that it does not recommend switching infant formulas. Traces of melamine have also been found in milk, eggs and fish food, prompting the FDA to issue an alert. As a result, Chinese products containing milk or milk powder will be stopped at our borders and held until the manufacturer or importer has proven the product is free of contamination.

While the U.S. imports less than 1 percent of its dairy products from China, that country is one of the leading producers of protein shakes and powders, as well as dietary supplements -- many of which are made with powdered milk.

Steps are being taken by both the United States and China to improve the food safety and inspection process for imports. Recently, the FDA announced the opening of three offices in China, located in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. These offices, the first FDA offices located outside the U.S., will attempt to regulate American-bound food from the source by pre-certifying and inspecting the products from Chinese manufacturers. Additionally, the FDA offices will attempt to identify in-country laboratories that can be trained and trusted to certify shipments to the United States.

The Chinese government is also calling for action to improve their food safety measures. Recently, the government announced that new food safety standards for the dairy and agriculture industry will be issued next October, ultimately aiming to create a mass-producing, high quality dairy industry.

This is not the first time the Chinese government has attempted to clean up their agriculture and dairy industry. While melamine was banned as an animal feed additive by the Chinese government immediately following the pet food scare in 2007, it was recently discovered that many manufacturers were still producing and using the substance in animal feed and products for human consumption.

Access issues regarding safety disputes with Chinese food and drug suppliers and manufacturers have also been a problem for U.S. inspectors. However, according to the U.S. Secretary of Health, this is slowly improving.

Hopefully, by establishing an international presence, the FDA will be even more effective in regulating imported goods from China -- and also help increase information shared between suppliers and manufacturers -- benefiting both American and Chinese consumers.

Ever since children started walking door-to-door collecting candy on Halloween, parents have been concerned about the safety of the sweets dropped into their bags. In years past, people might have worried about razorblades in candy apples. But this year, people will surely be more concerned about melamine. KeepOurFoodSafe.org is working to keep our readers up-to-date on this evolving situation.

Melamine is an industrial chemical that has been linked to the deaths of pets and a massive pet food recall in America in 2007, and now is involved in a massive milk powder and baby formula contamination crisis in China. To date, 53,000 children in China have been sickened by melamine and four have died this year.

As milk powder is also a common ingredient in sweets, the chemical has now been found in some candies in Europe, Southeast Asia and America. There have been no reported illnesses or deaths in this country, but the Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning to consumers to avoid White Rabbit Creamy Candies. Although this recall is in effect, there is concern that these candies are still available on store shelves. Melamine has also been found in Koala's March cookies in the United States, and the FDA has issued a recall on these as well. The FDA has also issued a warning to consumers against consuming a variety of Chinese products, including YILI, Blue Cat and Mr. Brown drinks, and, of course, any Chinese produced baby formulas. There are no Chinese-made baby formulas approved for sale in America, but officials worry they could find their way onto some store shelves anyway. Melamine has also been found in an edible chocolate spread sold in sex shops in England, in Cadbury chocolates in China for export to Australia and Taiwan, and in milk, yogurt and other milk products in Italy. So a fair amount of prudence is a good idea at this point.

How did this happen? Well, it should be stated that melamine should never be put in food. But the innocuous-looking powder has been added to food ingredients—like milk power this year and in pet food ingredients in the past —to make an ingredient test higher in protein levels than it actually is.

While any melamine in food should be avoided, if you are unlucky enough to ingest a little bit of it, you should be okay. The FDA states “In food products other than infant formula, the FDA concludes that levels of melamine and melamine-related compounds below 2.5 parts per million do not raise concerns.” Tests have shown that small amounts of melamine can be excreted by animals, including livestock, and presumably people. If an animal or person consumes a great deal of melamine -- which was the case in the pet food recall where the pets’ diets had little or no variety or in the current baby formula crisis where babies were fed little other than the contaminated formula -- it can cause renal problems, sometimes leading to death. In last year’s pet food crisis, melamine combined with another contaminant, cyanuric acid, resulting in the formation of crystals in the kidneys. The deaths and illnesses associated with this year’s milk powder recall are still under investigation.

The problem with Chinese dairy products seems pretty widespread. Traces of melamine have been found in formula produced by 21 Chinese dairies and dairy products produced by 15 additional companies. The FDA estimates that it inspects less than 1 percent of all food products imported into the United States, and that doesn’t take into account smuggling. While small doses of melamine are not believed to be deadly, the long-term impacts of ingesting the chemical have really never been studied.

Why isn’t more known? Because nobody could have predicted that people would end up eating melamine. Before last year’s pet food recall, nobody even thought to test for melamine in foods, because it’s not supposed to be there. As a result, KeepYourFoodSafe.org advises a modest dose of level-headed prudence this Halloween … but there’s no need to be terrified.