NEWS: Italian Arrest Over 'Toxic Wheat'

The owner of Europe's largest pasta mill has been arrested on charges that he intended to sell nearly 58,000 tonnes of wheat contaminated with the cancer causing chemical, ochratoxin. A shipment of the Canadian grown durum wheat was seized by Italian authorities, after it was found to have three times the permissible levels of ochratoxin permitted under EU rules. The allegations include an attempt by the owner to mix the toxic wheat with other uncontaminated wheat.



This is a serious crime.

It also shows that some in the food industry could care less about the quality of what they sell as long as it sells.

We are lucky this guy was caught....how many haven't been?

It's bad enough when you are trying to assess health risks on the basis of the things you know...What you don't know may be just as likely to kill you.

I hope this guy never sees the light of day again...

[edit on 12-1-2006 by loam]

This disturbs me:

58,000 tonnes of wheat contaminated with the cancer causing chemical, ochratoxin

and then

it was found to have three times the permissible levels of ochratoxin permitted under EU rules

It is known to be a carcinogen, but they allow it anyway?

Bloody hell.....



[edit on 11/1/06 by stumason]

Also, were has the voting thing gone? I can't vote!!

OK 58k tons of Wheat would make what, quite a few million Meals, so he should be charged with say 10 millions counts of reckless endangerment.

He should be locked in a cell with all this Wheat and not aloud out until he has eaten the lot himself

You mean 10 million counts of attemped murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

And thats assuming that this is the only time he and his accomplices in canada have ever done this.

Ochratoxin is one of many poisons produced by fungi, molds and other micobes that commonly contaminate our food supply. These poisons cause a range of symptoms that affect nerves, hormones, the immune system and metabolism. Medical science tends to acknowledge only the acute, life threatening symptoms - and to ignore milder symptoms called formes fruste.

Much evidence suggests that these very common toxic contaminations of the food supply are a factor in causing the world's chronic disease epidemic.

[0024] As used herein the term "exposed to a toxin-forming organism" refers to any patient contact with the toxin, such as direct contact with the toxin-producing organism itself, or by contact with the toxin, produced by the microbial organism. Such contact can occur, for example, by ingestion, inhalation, or contact through skin or mucosal membrane. Such toxin-forming dinoflagellates include but are not limited to Pfiesteria, Ciguatera, and Chattonella. Such toxin-forming fungi include but are not limited to Stachybotrys, Penicillium, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, and Fusarium. Such toxin-forming spirochetes include but are not limited to Borrelia, Treponema, Leptospira, and Denticola. Such toxin-forming protozoa include, but are not limited to Babesia and Plasmodium. Such toxin-forming cyanobacteria include but are not limited to Microcystis, Anabaenopsis and Cylindrospermopsis. Such toxin-forming bacteria include but are not limited to Bacillus, Clostridia, and coagulase-negative Staphylococcus.

United States Patent Application: 0030219400
Sorry, there's no direct link. Go to the US Patent Office website, and search under applications for #0030219400, or "Methods for treating or inhibiting neurotoxin-mediated syndromes"

For more information: Our Food Supply: Mycotoxins, Neurotoxins and More

Hmmm. Seems to me this case is just the tip of the iceberg - and the rest of the iceberg is a conspiracy.

Our food is FULL of biotoxins - they're said to be "safe" levels of poisoning because they don't kill us outright. Bull puckey.

I find it odd they would just arrest and charge only the owner of the company. :shk: Is that the way it works in Europe? Why not charge the whole company for all anyone knows he may and I am just saying he may not have been aware it was contaminated. Wouldn't it also be prudent to also charge the Canadians who shipped the product to the company?

Also wouldn't it be right if they just banned all Canadian wheat period, oh wait it occurs naturally doesn't it? For all anyone knows it may not have been contaminated when Canada shipped it, perhaps the fungus grew during shipping. For all anyone knows it may have arrived in Italy under the limits and became contaminated while in storage after it was tested by the company as safe only too have Italian customs test it later to find it is now contaminated.

What I am trying to get at here is perhaps this was just an accident and not and intentional conspriacy as some may think. After all the reason the wheat becomes contaminated is an act of nature is it not?

shots:

Taking the article at face value....an attempt to mix it with uncontaminated wheat hardly implies an ignorant mistake.

Are you saying there was no basis for an arrest?

Originally posted by shots
For all anyone knows it may have arrived in Italy under the limits and became contaminated while in storage after it was tested by the company as safe only too have Italian customs test it later to find it is now contaminated.

This likely is what happened. The wheat would have been tested before leaving Canada, and would have been under the limit for maximum ochratoxin content.

What I am trying to get at here is perhaps this was just an accident and not and intentional conspriacy as some may think. After all the reason the wheat becomes contaminated is an act of nature is it not?

No - not an act of nature. Certain conditions promote microorganisms' growth. We allow a certain level of these toxins in our food - and under certain conditions, they will multiply.

As it stands, the limits disallow levels that cause acute illness - and pretend chronic low level exposures do not cause chronic disease.

Pah.

Food Standard Safety rules and regs need a full overhaul.


.

Originally posted by loam
shots:

Taking the article at face value....an attempt to mix it with uncontaminated wheat hardly implies an ignorant mistake.

Are you saying there was no basis for an arrest?

no the article clearly states alledged, you are now changing it into what appears to be fact, which at this time it is not.

And no I am not saying there was no basis for the arrest, I am simply questioning why they charged only him. I am also questioning the possibility that he as an individual of the company maynot have been aware there was a problem with the wheat. That does not mean however that someone else in the company may have been of aware of it though. That is why I asked if this was the way things happened in Italy. What I am getting at here is I find it odd they would just charge one individual and not the corporation as a whole.

Originally posted by shots

What I am getting at here is I find it odd they would just charge one individual and not the corporation as a whole.

Despite the fact that corporations are "persons" under the law - it is rather useless to threaten them with incarceration.

Brava to Italy for charging the guy running the mess. It's called accountability. I can't wait for the rest of the world to pick up this ball.

Originally posted by soficrow
No - not an act of nature. Certain conditions promote microorganisms' growth. We allow a certain level of these toxins in our food - and under certain conditions, they will multiply.

As it stands, the limits disallow levels that cause acute illness - and pretend chronic low level exposures do not cause chronic disease.

Pah.

Food Standard Safety rules and regs need a full overhaul.


.

May be yes may be no perhaps the shiiping line crew did not maintain the proper conditions of humidity and temperature during shipment which caused it to grow during shipping. If that might be the case then perhaps the shipping line should also have been implicated rather then charge just one individual.

Originally posted by shots

... perhaps the shipping line should also have been implicated rather then charge just one individual.

Our world is in a mess because no one with power is accountable. Name any scandal, and it's a lower level scapegoat who's been sacrificed to take the blame.

The only way we are going to clean up anything is to go straight to the top, and hold the real powers responsible for everything that happens under their watch.


.

Originally posted by soficrow

Despite the fact that corporations are "persons" under the law - it is rather useless to threaten them with incarceration.

WOW that is just great, charge only the owner when perhaps more may have been involved :shk: Just what is wrong with that picture?

I hope you realize what you are saying in essence is that if ten men had poison and all poured the poison at the same time, you would just charge only one of them for the deaths of many? That is hardly what I would call justice in my book.

All who are guilty of this crime should be held accountable.

I will see if I can get more details on the situation.

EDIT:

OK, stop the presses:

This article says:

Police said Mr. Casillo had promised work to laboratory workers if they falsely declared that the grain was safe, enabling him to obtain the certificate he needed to sell some of it on the market.

Source.

I would say that makes him specifically qualified for suspicion of guilt.

But get this...

The Canadian article continues:

A shipment of Canadian grain said to contain high levels of a naturally occurring carcinogen was tested and found safe before it was shipped to Italy, the Canadian Wheat Board says.

“(The shipment) was tested for ocratoxine before it left the country,” board spokeswoman Maureen Fitzhenry said Thursday. “The levels were well within acceptable parameters. This grain is safe, and we're known to have safe grain.”

Source.

Interesting denial....

Remember there is big money at steak here.

More from the article...

“As far as I know," she said, "the reliability of the Italian test results hasn't been established.”

She also noted the results came up in a durum-producing region of Italy where local farmers are known to be unhappy about the importation of foreign wheat.

“There's a lot of discontent among the durum farmers,” she said. “It seems clear to me that there are some people in that country who aren't that keen on foreign products.”

Source.

That's a pretty EXPANSIVE denial. In fact, I would call that an outright attack! Why the big guns???? Me thinks the Canadian board doth protest too much...


Why would she question the Italian authorities ability to properly test? After all, they ARE the largest importers of durum wheat in the world. You don't think they have this kind of testing figured out???

...a final note:

Pasta mill head arrested, wheat stocks alleged to be contaminated

Ocratoxin is produced by several fungi and occurs naturally in a variety of plant products such as cereals, coffee beans, beans, pulses and dried fruit.

It has been detected also in products such as coffee, wine, beer and grape juice.

Its presence depends on climatic conditions, abnormally long storage, transportation, wet or dry milling, roasting procedures and fermentation.

[edit on 12-1-2006 by loam]

Originally posted by loam

Interesting denial....

Remember there us big money at steak here.

I assume that was a typo on your part and you meant to say is?


If not allow me to point out we are Talking Canadian Wheat and the US is in no way connected with the shipment that I know of.

Originally posted by shots
I assume that was a typo on your part and you meant to say is?

It was. Thank you for pointing that out. On occasion, my fat fingers do not hit their mark.



[edit on 12-1-2006 by loam]

Great stuff loam. Thanks.

Looks like trade games to me. There's something else going on that we don't know about - maybe about allowable levels for contamination in food supplies. Maybe a push for new international food safety standards? Maybe a trade war between Canada and Italy on some other product or issue? Or between a third party and one of the two?

I'd say more research is in order. This is much more complicated than it appears at first glance.

BTW - shots, I agree with your goal to hold everyone involved accountable, my concern is that the big guys always get away, and some little guy always takes the blame.

Interesting that this fool got outed for offering dinero for silence - that's how the game is played. Glad it didn't play this time. 1 for the good guys; 9860039847638504576467863 for the bad guys.

Originally posted by soficrow

BTW - shots, I agree with your goal to hold everyone involved accountable, my concern is that the big guys always get away, and some little guy always takes the blame.

Glad we agree and allow me to point out that I do find it odd that the company even accepted the product in the first place considering the fact that most shiplines carry cargo insurance while in transit that would have paid for the cargo had the product gone bad in shipment.

Something is wrong here and I honestly would like to know what the actual cause of the contamination was and that person/persons should also be held accountable.

[edit on 1/12/2006 by shots]