Three weeks after pet foods were initially called, almost two months after contamination was initially detected, more foods have been recalled by Menu Foods:
Four days after a Davis-based lab told the FDA it found melamine in some pet foods that had not been recalled, Menu Foods on Tuesday expanded its recall, adding at least six new brands of cat food and some new varieties sold under brands already recalled.
This latest recall comes despite assurances from Food and Drug Administration officials last week that its probe was winding down and it believed all tainted food had been pinpointed.
“We are pretty much coming to a conclusion on this,” Stephen Sundlof, head of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine, had said in a news conference Thursday. “The public should feel secure in purchasing pet foods that are not subject to this recall.”
The FDA had no immediate comment Tuesday on the fresh wave of recalls.
Menu Foods said Tuesday that, prompted by FDA inquiries, it had found some more suspect wheat gluten, possibly tainted with melamine, that was transferred from a plant in Kansas to its Canadian Menu plant in Ontario.
As a result, it was recalling food that the Canadian plant made in December and January. Menu’s new recall list shows at least six new brands and more new products sold by brands already recalled. In addition, in Canada, it recalled some more cat foods sold only in that country. The full list of recalled dog and cat foods is at www.menufoods.com.
The newly-recalled foods include foods sold both in Canada and the United States and are mostly “Flaked Tuna†and “Sliced Beef and Gravy†products sold under the brand names America’s Choice, Your Pet, Pet Pride, Laura Lynn, Nutriplan, Price Chopper, Publix, Stop & Shop Companion, Winn Dixie, and a wide variety of products sold under the Nutro brand name. Check the actual list of foods linked above.
It continues to baffle me how, absent detailed shipping manifests from the Chinese suppliers of the contaminated wheat gluten, anybody can make reasonable assurances that the contamination has not spread farther, including into the human food supply.
