The FDA has posted an update on the tainted pet food. The update confirms the presence of melamine in rice gluten concentrate delivered to five pet food manufacturers. Two manufacturers are mentioned by name: Royal Canin and C. J. Foods (a private label manufacturer). Royal Canin’s statement is here. C. J. Foods statement is here.
I reported on the specific varieties that Royal Canin has recalled here. C. J. Foods does not say what brands or varieties have been affected but it’s reasonable to conclude that Blue Buffalo Spa Select Kitten Food is one of them. Natural Balance venison products have also been recalled but there’s no word on who the actual manufacturer is.
That leaves several pet food manufacturers we haven’t heard from.
As I’ve mentioned before that corn gluten has also been found to have been contaminated (in South Africa). I suspect we’ll be hearing more about this.
As a consequence of the Royal Canin recall we’ve changed the foods we’re feeding our dogs. We are now feeding Eagle Pack Holistic Select Lamb and Rice. I’ll explore the decision process we used in a later post but, suffice it to say, we’ve lost confidence in Royal Canin and they’ve lost a customer of ten years.
Since changing foods we’ve noticed a definite change in the behavior of our dogs, increased appetite, (in one case) reduced reflux, and improved stool quality. We had attributed some of these things to other causes but we now suspect that contaminated food has been an important contributory factor. As you may imagine, we’re very upset.
The legitimate media are starting to catch on to the importance and severity of the problem we’re facing. Take a look at this AP feature:
LOS ANGELES — The same food safety net that couldn’t catch poisoned pet food ingredients from China has a much bigger hole.
Billions of dollars’ worth of foreign ingredients that Americans eat in everything from salad dressing to ice cream get a pass from overwhelmed inspectors, despite a rising tide of imports from countries with spotty records, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal trade and food data.
Well before contaminated shipments from China killed 16 cats and dogs and sickened thousands more, government food safety task forces worried about the potential human threat — ingredients are hard to quarantine and can go virtually everywhere in a range of brand products.
When U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors at ports and border checkpoints look, they find shipments that are filthy or otherwise contaminated. They rarely bother, however, in part because ingredients aren’t a priority.
Because these oils, spices, flours, gums and the like haven’t been blamed for killing humans, safety checks before they reach the supermarket shelf are effectively the responsibility of U.S. buyers. As the pet deaths showed, however, that system is far from secure.
The article goes on at some length to suggest that, basically, imported food ingredients are largely unchecked and unregulated and a trust system (as I’ve repeatedly pointed out) is in force.
Right now I’m following two lines of research. First, I’m soliciting help from agricultural biologists and food processing experts to investigate possible mechanisms by which the imported vegetable proteins may have become contaminated. That wheat gluten, rice gluten concentrate, and corn gluten imported from China have all been found to have been contaminated with melamine suggests something systematic (although possibly not intentional) is going on. Second, I’m consulting with veterinarians about treatment alternatives for pets that may have been affected by the contaminated foods. There’s some information on that subject here. PetConnection.com reports that they have more than 4,000 pets in their database of pets reported killed by the contaminated food and Banfield’s, a major veterinary hospital chain, has suggested that as many as 40,000 pets may have been affected by the contaminated foods. Melamine has an extended half-life—2-3 years—so the problems created may be around for a long time.
Update
The Washington Post has a disquieting article this morning on food contamination and the FDA’s complacent attitude:
The Food and Drug Administration has known for years about contamination problems at a Georgia peanut butter plant and on California spinach farms that led to disease outbreaks that killed three people, sickened hundreds, and forced one of the biggest product recalls in U.S. history, documents and interviews show.
Overwhelmed by huge growth in the number of food processors and imports, however, the agency took only limited steps to address the problems and relied on producers to police themselves, according to agency documents.
[…]
The outbreaks point to a need to change the way the agency does business, said Robert E. Brackett, director of the FDA’s food-safety arm, which is responsible for safeguarding 80 percent of the nation’s food supply.
“We have 60,000 to 80,000 facilities that we’re responsible for in any given year,” Brackett said. Explosive growth in the number of processors and the amount of imported foods means that manufacturers “have to build safety into their products rather than us chasing after them,” Brackett said. “We have to get out of the 1950s paradigm.”
Thank you for staying on top of this, Dave. I wish you and your dogs the best.