Relationship Between Melamine and Protein

Here’s a look at the relationship between Melamine and Protein. Guess this must be a hot topic with the recent worldwide recall for China dairy products.

The recent worldwide recall of Chinese diary products and the “relationship” between melamine and the high protein in the milk products has frighten some people into believing that both melamine and protein are related. The actual fact is, they are not and a world apart.

However, they share one common feature – high nitrogen content.

Melamine is relatively cheap industrial chemical, readily available, fairly non-toxic, water soluble and most significantly, super-rich in nitrogen. It is normally used to make plastics but it can also make milk and other food products appear to have a higher protein content than they actually do leading to the use of melamine as a cheap “high-protein” fake to boost protein readings.

Besides melamine, there are also other ingredients that are rich in nitrogen including urea and ammonium nitrate. There are known cases of urea and its derivatives being put illegally into products such as wheat. And we know ammonium nitrate is widely used as fertliser and can make its way into the food chain.

Their uses as illegal food additives escapes routine detection because many commercial quality control processes merely test for the total nitrogen content of the proteins, not the protein itself. Other proven methods to detect melamine and other non-protein nitrogen are available but they are not part of routine checks.

Melamine is not a potent toxin and most healthy adults can get rid of it by metabolism or passing it out in urine. With its combination with cyanuric acid when it degrades, they combine to form a crystalline complex that turns into a solid

This can lead to kidney stones and poses a serious health problem and death threat for infants and pets who are less efficient in getting rid of the chemicals.

Given the fact that relationship between melamine and protein has nothing in common except for their nitrogen rich content, we just have to be more watchful about what we eat and have a more balanced diet. With the possibility of ammonia nitrate passing down the food chain because of its wide use as fertilizer, perhaps protein rich vegetables and other vegetables with reported protein content may not be what they seem anymore???

And you thought it would be safe to be a vegetarian?