FDA APPROVES BLENDING OF CORN CONTAINING AFLATOXIN

In the September 26, 2012 Preston Times, my local small town newspaper, there was an article entitled 'FDA APPROVES BLENDING OF CORN CONTAINING AFLATOXIN'.  I wrote a letter to the editor but it was not published.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe because I'm in a small farming town and there are too many ties to financial issues?  I really can't say but I've always learned to follow the money.  Please read the letter and I encourage you to leave any helpful comments.

Dear Editor:

I greatly appreciated the article entitled with bold and capitalized letters ‘FDA APPROVES BLENDING OF CORN CONTAINING AFLATOXIN’ as it should be a wakeup call to anyone who is eating anything made of corn or any livestock that is fed with the corn contaminated with aflatoxin.  I only wished the title read ‘CONTAMINATED WITH AFLATOXIN’ instead of ‘containing aflatoxin’ as contaminated is a much better choice of words. (from here bold and underlined my emphasis)

From Iowa State University – Extension and Outreach I found this table:

Table 1.

FDA guidelines for acceptable aflatoxin level

in corn based on intended use (www.fda.gov).

Intended use Aflatoxin level (ppb)

Milk (Dairy Feed) None detected

Corn of unknown destination <20

Corn for young animals <20

Corn for dairy cattle <20

Corn for breeding beef <100

cattle, swine, and mature poultry

Corn for finishing swine <200

Corn for finishing cattle <300

It amazed me as I read the article further I found this, “The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has established an “action level” of 20 ppb for aflatoxins in corn in interstate commerce. This is the level at which federal agencies may take action, including seizure of the corn or prohibition of its sale. Elevators do not accept corn with 20 ppb or more of aflatoxin unless they have a known use for the particular level of aflatoxin. Even one highly contaminated kernel in a 5-lb sample could result in more than 20 ppb aflatoxin.

In the Preston Times article it went on to say, ‘Finally, the blended corn must be clearly identified and labeled for animal feed use only and corn containing aflatoxin levels greater than 500ppb cannot be blended.’  The table above shows the FDA in 1988 understood the severity of aflatoxin and created the guidelines above.  At the same time they also decided that if the level of aflatoxin is 20 ppb or higher federal agencies may take action and could seize the corn.  Does any of this seem odd?  The FDA was protecting the population in 1998 and now in 2012 they are allowing more aflatoxin into the food chain.  So did aflatoxin get less toxic?

This information came from Cornell University – Department of Animal Science and it states, ‘Milk, eggs, and meat products are sometimes contaminated because of the animal consumption of aflatoxin-contaminated feed.’  Further the article goes on to inform the reader, ‘ However, only aflatoxin B1 is considered by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as having produced sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals to be identified as a carcinogen.  Aflatoxin B1 is the most abundant aflotoxin.  According to the Cornell University Article, ‘Even though heavily contaminated food supplies are not permitted in the market place in developed countries, concern still remains for the possible adverse effects resulting from long-term exposure to low levels of aflatoxins in the food supply.  In 1988, the IARC placed aflatoxin B1 on the list of human carcinogens. This is supported by a number of epidemiological studies done in Asia and Africa that have demonstrated a positive association between dietary aflatoxins and Liver Cell Cancer (LCC) . Additionally, the expression of aflatoxin-related diseases in humans may be influenced by factors such as age, sex, nutritional status, and/or concurrent exposure to other causative agents such as viral hepatitis (HBV) or parasite infestation.

This is the icing on the cake according to The National Institue of Environmental Health Sciences,‘Their data show that when people who test positive for the hepatitis B virus are also exposed to aflatoxin in the diet, their risk for developing liver cancer is about 60 times that of unexposed individuals. This increase in cancer risk is much greater than that observed with either aflatoxin or hepatitis B virus alone.’

After conducting my own research on the aflatoxin I wondered whether the toxin had become less detrimental to the livestock or humans that ingest either the corn, livestock that eat the corn or byproducts from the livestock such as milk, eggs, cheese etc.  My findings concluded Aflatoxin B1 is still the most abundant carcinogenic aflatoxin in the world.  So if anyone can explain why the FDA has reneged on their earlier recommendations and is now allowing aflatoxin of less than 500ppb to be mixed with animal feed when originally it was less than 300ppb I would love to hear this explained.

It is my belief that due to the dry harsh summer, which is perfect breading for mold that produce the aflatoxin, the government decided to up the toxic level of corn so as to not make the commerce market go into a tail spin producing higher food prices for the consumer.  Instead in their infinite wisdom and knowledge they are saying, ‘It’s okay, we really didn’t mean that 20 ppb is horribly bad and we’re sorry we told you that we would seize corn with that amount of aflatoxin.  So go ahead and instead of destroying the crop get it to the market place, feed the cattle and put those cattle into the food chain so people can get more liver cancer so the medical profession can make more money.’

The last disturbing thing about this situation is that any products or livestock that enters into the market place for consumption won’t be labeled as having aflatoxin in it unless it is greater than 500ppb.  Those who made this idiotic arrangement I encourage them to take less than 500 ppb, maybe just 200 ppb for a period of 6 month.  This will ensure eventual painful death due to not only liver cancer but many other cancers as well.  This toxin is accumulative so even if a person is ingesting 5 ppb on a regular basis the liver can’t handle dealing with the toxin and all other jobs it must accomplish.  The end result is cancer and death.

Please write your representative and stop the madness!

Dr. Richard Betts DC

Preston, IA

Please do what you feel you need to do.  But this is truly insane from a health standpoint.

Dr. Betts