Cyanuric Acid Found in Tainted Ingredients

If you've been keeping track of the pet food recall story, you probably know the tainted imported ingredients were fed to hogs, some presently in our food supply. That's not a huge surprise. The interesting part of that news story, in my opinion, was the identity of the contaminant. In addition to melamine, which is old news, testing revealed the pet food scraps fed to the hogs contained other banned chemicals, including cyanuric acid. While melamine isn't much of a health concern, except to cats, it is unknown what effect the other chemicals or the combination of chemicals could have on animals or people.

Cyanuric acid (1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triol, C₃H₃N₃O₃) is an organic compound used as a water treatment stabilizer for swimming pools and hot tubs. Amilorine and amiloride also were found in connection with testing of rice protein concentrate. Cyanuric acid, amilorine, and amiloride are metabolites of melamine, so though it's possible cyanuric acid was added as a contaminant, it more likely resulted from bacterial metabolism of melamine. I think the other two chemicals were found in the tissue and urine of animals that ate the contaminated food, not in the ingredient itself.

FDA Tests Human Food Ingredients for Melamine
Recall Expanded to Include Rice Ingredient
Melamine & Gluten Make Plastic
Are Contaminated Ingredients in Human Food?
Melamine & Wheat Gluten Toxicity
What to Do If You Used Recalled Food

Image: Melamine chemical structure.