Until now, the New York State Food Laboratory had been quietly going about their business in testing foods sold at grocery stores. But, the amenity is now gone thanks to dogs and cats.
The quiet and nondescript life these scientists had by working at this lab is gone because 10 of their researchers made the stunning breakthrough on tainted pet food that is now rocking the country.
This team of researchers were the ones who made the crucial finding that a banned rodent poison called aminopterin may have been killing peoples pet cats and dogs.
The New York State Food Laboratory is part of the Food Emergency Response Network. This network is a federally supported group that has expertise in testing for chemical, biological, and radiological hazards in food and food products.
This lab is staffed by roughly 40 chemists, microbiologists and technicians that is one of the few state level labs capable of doing this testing. This lab regularly tests foods for pesticides.
When Cornell University was unable to figure out what was wrong with the tainted pet food, the scientists sent some samples of the tainted pet food to the New York State Food Laboratory located in Albany, NY. The chemists at this lab quickly got to work on numerous tests to eliminate hundreds of causes ranging from heavy metals to deadly fungus.
In just a matter of days, these researchers were able to pinpoint aminopterin, a derivative of folic acid, as the cause behind the tainted pet food. Aminopterin was once used to induce abortions, Aminopterin is also used in cancer research.
The scientists at this lab brought over 100 years of experience to this case, and they have long gone about their business with little fanfare. However, all that has change because of the stellar work these researchers did in quickly determining the cause of tainted pet food.
Read more at Yahoo News
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