Dogfood Recall

Note: more recent updates on the recall are being posted here.

There’s been a huge recall of dogfood:

WASHINGTON – A major manufacturer of pet foods sold throughout North America under dozens of store names is recalling millions of containers of its products while working to determine what caused kidney failure and some deaths of cats and dogs.

Menu Foods said Saturday it is recalling dog food sold under 46 brands and cat food sold under 37 brands and distributed throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. The pet foods were sold by major retailers, including Wal-Mart, Kroger and Safeway.

A complete list of the recalled products along with product codes, descriptions and production dates is available from the Menu Foods website, http://www.menufoods.com/recall. Consumers with questions can also call (866) 895-2708.

“At this juncture, we’re not 100 percent sure what’s happened,” said Paul Henderson, the company’s president and chief executive officer. However, the recalled products were made using wheat gluten purchased from a new supplier, since dropped for another source, spokeswoman Sarah Tuite said. Wheat gluten is a source of protein.

An unknown number of cats and dogs suffered kidney failure and about 10 died after eating the affected pet food, Menu Foods said in announcing the North American recall. Product testing has not revealed a link explaining the reported cases of illness and death, the company said.

The recall covers a large number of brands from a large number of major retailers. Fortunately, the brand we feed—Sensible Choice—wasn’t affected.

If you’ve got pets, check out the web site above. Better safe than sorry.

Update

Nutro has voluntarily withdrawn some of its “wet” pet foods in response to recall:

CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif., March 17 /CNW/ — As a result of the Menu Foods North American recall of specific canned and small foil pouch ‘wet’ cat and dog food, Nutro Products, along with many other pet food companies, has announced a voluntary recall on specific pet food products manufactured for it by Menu Foods. This recall applies to certain wet food only. No dry Nutro pet foods, biscuits or treats are impacted by this matter and no other canned or pouched Nutro products are subject to this recall.

While Menu Foods has indicated that none of the products that may have given rise to pet illness or death were Nutro’s products, there have been a very small number of reported cases of pets becoming sick and developing signs of kidney failure from ingestion of products tied to Menu Foods. Signs of kidney failure include loss of appetite, vomiting and lethargy. Consumers should immediately stop using the involved products and consult with a veterinarian if their pet shows any signs of these symptoms.

It’s a little difficult to tell which brands are affected by the recall based on the Menu Foods link above. The foods involved are all wet food i.e. sold in a can or pouch and not dry kibble. Since Menu Foods is a private label manufacturer for so many major chains, if you feed a store brand, it’s probably prudent to suspend feeding the store brand wet food and ask, specifically.

Update 2

The following are some of the brand name pet foods affected by the recall based on what I’ve been able to determine . Right now Menu Foods’s web site (linked above) and many of the the web sites of the affected brands are overwhelmed by the traffic they’re receiving and are unreachable.

Brand name foods affected by the recall

Eukanuba
Iams
Mighty Dog
Nutro
most major retailer house brands—check your retailer

Brand name foods not affected by the recall

Cesar’s (all Mars products)
Pedigree
Royal Canin (including Sensible Choice)

The complete list of recalled foods with links to the specific lots is below…

1. Americas Choice, Preferred Pets
2. Authority
3. Award
4. Best Choice
5. Big Bet
6. Big Red
7. Bloom
8. Wegmans Bruiser
9. Cadillac
10. Companion
11. Demoulas Market Basket
12. Eukanuba
13. Food Lion
14. Giant Companion
15. Great Choice
16. Hannaford
17. Hill Country Fare
18. Hy-Vee
19. Iams
20. Laura Lynn
21. Loving Meals
22. Meijers Main Choice
23. Mighty Dog Pouch
24. Mixables
25. Nutriplan
26. Nutro Max
27. Nutro Natural Choice
28. Nutro Ultra
29. Nutro
30. Ol’Roy Canada
31. Ol’Roy US
32. Paws
33. Pet Essentials
34. Pet Pride – Good n Meaty
35. Presidents Choice
36. Price Chopper
37. Priority
38. Publix
39. Roche Bros
40. Save-A-Lot
41. Schnucks
42. Shep Dog
43. Springsfield Prize
44. Sprout
45. Stater Bros
46. Weis Total Pet
47. Western Family
48. White Rose
49. Winn Dixie
50. Your Pet