If the Chinese melamine industry was marketing to the fluid milk producers and processors to spike the faux-protein content of milk, I figured they were marketing and selling to the animal feed manufacturing firms.

Chinese regulators said Friday that they were widening their investigation into contaminated food amid growing signs that an industrial chemical called melamine had leeched into the nation’s animal feed supplies, posing even deeper health risks to consumers after the recent tainted milk scandal.

If its in the animal feed, that means beef, pork, seafood, chicken, chicken eggs, etc.

The announcement came after food safety tests earlier this week found that eggs produced in three different provinces in China were contaminated with melamine, a chemical that is blamed for causing kidney stones and renal failure in infants. The tests have led to recalls of eggs and consumer warnings.

Remember, melamine marketing is an industry in China.  Economic development, ya know.

But interviews Friday, and over the past year, with several chemical dealers who sell melamine suggests that melamine scrap, the substantially cheaper waste left over after producing melamine, has been added to animal and fish feed in China for years.

“I heard some melamine dealers still sell to animal feed producers,” said Qin Huaizhen, manager at the Gaocheng Kaishun Chemical Co. in the city of Shijiazhuang, though he insisted he had never sold melamine to animal feed producers. “In Shandong province many animal feed manufacturers buy melamine scrap.”