China and the FDA come clean, sorta

China finally admitted that two companies illegally exported contaminated wheat gluten and rice protein to the U.S., supposedly to keep up with demand for higher protein levels in the products.

Meanwhile, the FDA has now admitted that a few more than '16 confirmed deaths' have resulted from tainted pet food.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it has received about 17,000 complaints of sick pets, with about 4,000 deaths reported. Investigations have extended to livestock feed containing tainted pet food that made its way to some 6,000 hogs and as many as 3.1 million chickens.

That's closer to the truth. Its not like the pet owners, desperately checking the web every day for updates, didn't know how high the numbers were climbing. It was past time for the FDA to come clean as well. This is a mess.

China had denied FDA assertions that melamine, a chemical used in plastics and fertilizer, had been added to wheat gluten and rice protein exported from China for pet foods. But Xinhua state news agency reversed the official position.

"The two companies illegally added melamine...in a bid to meet the contractual demand for the amount of protein in the products," Xinhua said, quoting the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

The Administration said the two companies, named by the FDA as Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd. and Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd, evaded quality checks by labeling their products as exports not subject to inspection.