Are Protein Supplements Made in China??

All the recent talk about contaminated wheat gluten in pet foods from
Chinese sources has made me wonder: just where are protein supplements
made, anyway? Are they made overseas, in China, like so many other
things these days??

If so, might they be subject to the same corner/cost-cutting which
seems to be behind the contaminated gluten?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/bu...ia&oref=slogin

EXCERPT

China's State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and
Quarantine, which is responsible for overall food safety issues here,
declined to respond to questions sent to the agency Monday.

American regulators now believe the Chinese companies may have
intentionally added melamine to their feed ingredients to artificially
bolster the protein count in those supplies in order to meet
requirements.

A Chinese expert here said Monday that it was possible melamine could
have been used to bolster protein counts.

"If the melamine level is high, it must have been added
intentionally." Liu Laiting, a professor of animal sciences at the
Henan University of Technology. "The amine in melamine can boost the
protein level in tests, because it has chemical element N. It's also
likely to increase the adhesiveness of the gluten." Mr. Liu added that
melamine was hard to detect in ordinary tests.

Regulators have not made a definitive link between melamine and the
deaths of animals that consumed it. But melamine is not approved for
use in animal or human foods and therefore any use of it would be
illegal.

On Wed, 25 Apr 2007, Prisoner at War wrote:

> All the recent talk about contaminated wheat gluten in pet foods from
> Chinese sources has made me wonder: just where are protein supplements
> made, anyway? Are they made overseas, in China, like so many other
> things these days??

Worse - Europe!

Well, okay, maybe the stuff in the US is made in the US. Basically, whey
protein is a by-product of cheese manufacture, so it comes from countries
which have massive high-tech dairy industries propped up by gigantic state
subsidies, ie the EU, USA, and Canada. Not so much China.

tom

--
Eat whip you steroid wall-bashing lug-head! -- The Laird

On Apr 25, 8:21 pm, Tom Anderson <t...@urchin.earth.li> wrote:
>
>
> Worse - Europe!

LOL -- but they probably have the strictest food safety standards in
the world!

> Well, okay, maybe the stuff in the US is made in the US. Basically, whey
> protein is a by-product of cheese manufacture, so it comes from countries
> which have massive high-tech dairy industries propped up by gigantic state
> subsidies, ie the EU, USA, and Canada. Not so much China.
>
> tom

Ah, thanks: "think globally, eat locally!"

BTW, protein supplements do not taste bad. My gym has a juice bar and
I tried out a whey protein shake (protein only, no fruits or any other
additions) and they're all right. No real taste, really -- but
nothing to argue with or rail against like what I'd heard.

> --
> Eat whip you steroid wall-bashing lug-head! -- The Laird

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007, Prisoner at War wrote:

> BTW, protein supplements do not taste bad. My gym has a juice bar and I
> tried out a whey protein shake (protein only, no fruits or any other
> additions) and they're all right. No real taste, really -- but nothing
> to argue with or rail against like what I'd heard.

I'd agree with you; mix up whey powder and water, and it tastes like a
less sweet, slightly odd version of skimmed milk. Mix it up with milk and
milkshake powder, and it tastes like milkshake. Who are these buffoons
claiming it tastes bad?

tom

--
Punk's not sexual, it's just aggression.

Tom Anderson wrote:
>
>
> I'd agree with you; mix up whey powder and water, and it tastes like a
> less sweet, slightly odd version of skimmed milk. Mix it up with milk and
> milkshake powder, and it tastes like milkshake. Who are these buffoons
> claiming it tastes bad?

Probably competing manufacturers and gym "worriers" (who worry about
everything, from sweat on benches to supplement taste).

Anyway, at 35 years old and still stuck at 17" biceps with 275-lbs. on
the benchpress, I'm getting desperate...I think I'll look into some
supplements after all, just to see if anything happens...I'll also cut
back on cardio, to see if that helps with mass and hypertrophy...I
wonder if anyone's done any studies on any possible placebo effects of
supplementation...I'm still skeptical about it all, having had +18"
arms benching 315 once on junk food -- but now that I'm 35 I don't
care about taste and will eat my greens! Luckily, protein supplements
have not turned out anywhere near as bad tasting as some say.

> tom
>
> --
> Punk's not sexual, it's just aggression.