Yesterday the U. S. Senate began an investigation into the Menu Foods pet food recall. There are clearly differences of opinion. The pet food manufacturers stated their position:
“It was a foreign substance,” Duane Ekedahl, executive director of the Pet Food Institute, an organization of pet food manufacturers, told the panel Thursday. “All the regulation in the world would not really have captured that foreign substance.”
Determining the mass of the wheat gluten which seems to have been the source of the problem would have identified the contamination. That’s a very basic test.
Veterinarians:
“The industry is highly regulated … but it’s not effectively regulated,” said veterinarian Elizabeth Hodgkins, who told lawmakers that loose safety regulations lull pet owners into a false sense of security. “We don’t have products that are as safe as the labels suggest.”
and
“Less than one-third of pet food processing facilities have been inspected once in the last 3 1/2 years?” he asked Stephen Sundlof, director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the FDA. “The frequency of your inspection of pet food facilities leaves something to be desired.”
Politicians:
Durbin suggested that the pet food recalls pose a concern for non-pet owners as well, though no evidence exists that the affected wheat gluten has made its way into food for people.
“What’s the connection between E. coli on spinach and contaminated pet food?” Durbin asked. “Unfortunately it’s the same broken food safety program.”
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) stopped into the meeting long enough to make sure everyone realized just how important pets are.
“There is a unique special relationship between pets and their owners. I’m talking because I know,” said Byrd, who has a Shih Tzu named Trouble who was named by his late wife, Irma. Byrd calls the dog Baby.
“She sleeps on my bed. She goes with me to the Senate. She stays in my office. That is Baby — that is my wife’s dog Trouble,” he said. “Our pets are our companions, our soul mates, and our hedge against emotional turmoil. … When the FDA protects our pets, the FDA protects the health of millions of Americans as well.”
Whatever the opinions the following are very clear. Thousands of pets have been killed or injured by eating contaminated pet food. We still don’t know the nature or source of the contaminant (although, since the number of new cases reported seems to have slowed since the recall, that contaminated wheat gluten imported from a Chinese company by ChemNutra and sold to Menu Foods was the vector of the toxin is a reasonable inference). Nobody in the distribution chain seems to have exercised due diligence, particularly in the light of the lack of recourse in dealing with a Chinese supplier. Both Menu Foods and the FDA were dilatory in dealing with the situation.
Since we don’t definitively know the source or nature of the contamination, we can’t reasonably say the matter is drawing to a conclusion nor can we be sure that contaminated food hasn’t entered the human fod supply.
