Wheat Gluten And Chicken?

[ErraticBinxie]

I was just watching the news and they were saying that the contaminated wheat gluten that was in all the bad pet food was also being fed to chickens. Now they are afraid that people are eating infected chicken.

My first thought was....if chickens eat wheat gluten, should I be eating chicken? Does anyone know anything about this and if there is any risk from eating meat that eats gluten?

[zansu]

no, the gluten would be broken down by the chicken's digestive track. It's the plastic (the melanine) that they're worried about. And I believe that would be in the organ meat.

[mamaloca2]

I was just watching the news and they were saying that the contaminated wheat gluten that was in all the bad pet food was also being fed to chickens. Now they are afraid that people are eating infected chicken.

My first thought was....if chickens eat wheat gluten, should I be eating chicken? Does anyone know anything about this and if there is any risk from eating meat that eats gluten?

I think the gluten is contaminated with bacteria that can make people sick. So I would consider avoiding it for this reason until issue is cleared up. But normally eating plain chicken is fine. I think the gluten has to be broken down in the chickens digestive system before it can enter the tissue. It's the undigested protein that we have a reaction to. I eat chicken all the time and it's fine.

However, there are instances where you need to check for gluten in Processed chicken foods for things that are added to the chicken like modified food starch. I wanted to buy some frozen taquitos today, but they add mod. food starch to it...jerks. Is that really necessary? Frustrating.

[alamaz]

I think the scarier part of this story is how we find out what they feed the animals that we eat....ew! in addition to how they treat the animals it's really a scary thing.

[ravenwoodglass]

The melamine has been found in the meat of these birds. They have been on the market for a while. The FDA is stateing that we need not be concerned because chicken would only form a small portion of our diet, rather than the sole source of food like for our pets. The FDA has not issued any recall of the chickens but the hogs are basically 'in quarentine' and are not at this point being allowed to enter our food chain.

Personally I am glad that I am a very light meat eater. I will remain that way until the FDA gets the funding and the manpower it needs to follow it's own rules. At present meat packing plants that should be getting regular inspections are not because of funding cuts, and that I am sure is only one example.

It really is too bad that man has to take things that are healthy and turn them into hazardous products all for the sake of a few dollars. The US does much too little inspecting of foreign imported food, and we import more than we ever have. Meanwhile the small farmer gets pushed out and the larger ones are paid not to grow.