There have been some major developments in the pet food recall I’ve been posting about here for the last several weeks. First, the substance originally believed to have been implicated, aminopterin (a rat poison), no longer seems to be the culprit. It is now suspected that melamine, a material used in plastics, was the cause of the deaths of pets who ate the cuts and gravy style foods that have been recalled. From the Menu Food Press Conference that was conducted yesterday:
One week ago, some of the dedicated researchers who had been investigating this matter reported the discovery of a single, toxic compound in our pet food. That, seemingly, cleared the way for us to address the problem, deal fairly with the pet-owners who had been injured, put our business back together, and move on.
In the intervening week, other top scientists have been unable to validate the findings. That is, they were unable to find the toxin – called aminopterin – in our pet food, or in any of the component ingredients. It was also brought to our attention that some veterinary experts held the view that aminopterin was inconsistent with what was being observed in dogs and cats.
There is an entirely different story today.
As you heard earlier from the FDA and Cornell University, a compound called melamine has been identified as being present in the food that caused the pet illnesses and deaths.
>Melamine has been found in the finished product that was the subject of recall and has not been found in other Menu Foods pet food outside of the recall. Menu Foods only manufactures wet pet food.
Melamine has been found in the wheat gluten from a new supplier in the United States, who sourced this wheat gluten in China. This is the same ingredient that Menu Foods made reference to in its recall press release of March 16. Melamine has not been found in the wheat gluten that we obtain from our other suppliers.
The recalled product is unfit for consumption by pets. It contains melamine.
The pet food that we have manufactured after March 6 is safe and healthy. How do we know this?
First, it contains no melamine. Secondly, it contains none of the suspect wheat gluten.
Thirdly, all of the testing that has been conducted, including the routine taste tests that were underway prior to the discovery of this problem, have demonstrated that those products not associated with the suspect wheat gluten performed very well and in a manner consistent with historic norms.
The second major development is that Hill’s Pet Nutrition has recalled a single additional product: Prescription Diet m/d Feline Dry Food. From the Hill’s web site:
Topeka, KS (March 30, 2007) – In accordance with its over-riding commitment to pet health and well-being, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc. is voluntarily recalling Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food from the market. Hill’s is taking this precautionary action because during a two-month period in early 2007, wheat gluten for this product was provided by a company that also supplied wheat gluten to Menu Foods. U.S. Food and Drug Administration tests of wheat gluten samples from this period show the presence of a small amount of melamine. Prescription Diet m/d Feline Dry represents less than one half of one percent of all Hill’s products.
This is the only product Hill’s currently sells in the United States and Canada that contains wheat gluten from any supplier. No other Hill’s Prescription Diet® or Science Diet® products are affected by this voluntary recall. Hill’s Science Diet Savory Cuts Feline canned cat foods, manufactured by Menu Foods, were previously withdrawn from the market as a precaution. Together with this earlier withdrawal, less than 1% of all Hill’s products have been affected.
The web site has a picture of the recalled food. If you’re feeding your cat this product, stop now.
I just looked at three of the pet foods we’ve got around here. One contained wheat gluten (a dry food). Two did not (a wet and a dry). This does make you think.
I continue to think that large as this story is it has even larger implications in law, consumer product safety, national security, etc. For example, when the various ingredients of the food that you or your pet eats originate in a dozen different countries with a dozen different consumer protection laws (including none at all), how is a consumer to know how much to trust it? How is the fabricator (like Menu Foods)? Does using ingredients from some sources impose a heightened responsibility for testing by the fabricator? Should it? I’ll be posting more on these subjects as I order my thoughts.
I totally agree that the “Food” and drug administration must require some degree of testing to insure foreign supplied material is safe for pets or human for that matter. What is enlightening is that many of the labels produced by Menu foods are marketed as superior products at higher prices than Purina or Meow mix ( Iamms, Science diet, eukanuba) . We must be truly nieve to believe that they differ in any way but name and cost from a supermarket
branded products. I guess old PT was right there is a sucker born every minute.
am I the only person who’s noticed that nobody is saying who the supplier of the poisoned wheat gluten is? in every AP article, it’s always “an unnamed supplierâ€.
you know what I think? this gluten got into the human food supply, and there’s a huge FDA coverup going on.
you read it here first.
This evening I opened a fresh bag of Science Diet Chicken & Rice dry. Same food I always use. I gave my kitty one tiny handful. Within 1/2 hour, he was in the litter box with major diarrhea. I realize this item is not on the list. My point—I think the list will include every major manufacturer in the next few days. I noticed the fourth ingredient in this food was Corn Gluten. Me thinks this is much larger than we realize right now.
call this number…800-949-3799…you will learn that DEL MONTE HAS JOINED THE RECALL PARADE with recalled dog & cat treats including Jerky treats dog snacks, Gravy Train Beef Sticks Dog Snacks, Pounce Meaty Morsels Moist Chicken Flavor Cat Treats and several Ol’ Roy dog treats to name a few.
They knew this morning…notified by the FDA that they had bad wheat gluten…THEY WAITED UNTIL THIS EVENING TO START ANNOUNCING THIS!!!…after most people had already done their weekly Saturday shopping!!!! This is really BAD!!!!
I feed my 9 year old female black lab science diet wet and dry and notice corn gluten is an ingredient. To be safe I am wondering what to do–is there a dog food that is truly safe–one that doesn’t use Menu Foods as a supplier? And if so which one?
Sincerely,
Jack Stewart
At this point only wheat gluten, not corn gluten, has been implicated in the recall, jack. Somehow we’re going to have to strike a balance between underconcern and overconcern.
Dave, I had no reason to be overconcerned with a new bag of SD Chicken & Rice until I served it, same as usual. Last evening it only took 30 minutes for diarhhea, totally unexpected. It has not stopped. It is Sunday morning. I stand by my thoughts that this recall is gonna involve more flavors and brands and ingredients than we first thought. I have no facts to back it up, except what is happening here that has never happened before. This is a brand new bag of food. Fillers are fillers and we need to know if the supplier also offered other fillers for sale. I have purchased organic, holistic food for the first time, but when you serve new foods, diarhhea can be expected with that too.
You may well be right, Ann. Although identifying the specific substance that has injured (and may well be continuing to injure) cats and dogs is critically important, it’s not the only thing that’s important. The key problem is that substances that shouldn’t be in pet food at all and that the manufacturers and brand names aren’t testing for have found their way into the food supply.
i AGREE, i THINK A BIG COVERUP IS GOING ON. wHO INDEED IS THE SUPPLIER OF THIS WHEAT GLUTEN AND WHY WON’T THEY TELL US THE NAME. I ALSO THINK A COVER UP IS GOING ON BY THE FDA AND IT DID GET INTO OUR FOOD CHAIN. i HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND THIS OUT. NOBODY WILL GIVE ME THE NAME OF THE SUPPLIER IN CHINA.
I too would like to know who the supplier is of the wheat gluten. I think the FDA is covering something up and that the gluten did get into our food chain. Big problems ahead.
I doubt there’s a coverup going on here, Holly. The information you’re looking for is in this FDA Import Alert Report.
wheat and corn gluten are also used in human consumption , right ?
Yes indeed, Lynn, and in my more recent post on this subject I touch on that. In a future post I plan to touch on the national security implications of the pet food recall.
The FDA announced today that it has traced the contaminated wheat gluten to a single processor, Xuzhou Anying Biological Technology of Peixian, China, but has not released the name of the U.S. distributor who supplied the product to Del Monte, Menu Foods, Nestle Purina, and Hills Nutritional. In all, more than 70 brands and over 60 million cans and pouches of dog and cat food are now part of this massive recall, as well as at least one brand of dry cat food.
Public statements have indicated that the contaminated gluten was distributed by a single U.S. company, but since the FDA refuses to name the supplier, it is not yet known if this company also supplies human food manufacturers. It is also not yet known if Xuzhou Anying sells direct to food manufacturers in the U.S. or abroad.
I just read this@
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-goldstein/tainted-wheat-gluten-sold_b_44743.html
Knew ppl were wondering what comp.
For more information about this unfolding story…there is potentially much more to this story.
http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=8544&pst=742508&reply=1#755501
Has Hill’s confirmed that they have not used corn gluten from China in their products?
I started feeding my cat Purina Cat Chow, dry, last week as a stopgap until I could get some food which was GUARANTEED safe. He threw up the first day, but he does that from time to time because of hairballs, so I didn’t think anything of it. He vomited every day for about 5 solid days before I went out and got some decent food for him at the local organic store. (It happened to be Wellness brand in this case.)
Lo and behold, when I poured the Wellness dry on top of the Purina, he picked the Wellness out nugget by nugget and left only the Purina in the bowl. The point of the story is not to promote Wellness brand cat food. The point is that Purina Cat Chow dry is obviously contaminated with something horrible, and is not on any of the lists.
NESTLE-PURINA IS STILL MURDERING CATS EVERY DAY, AND IS SOMEHOW COVERING IT UP. PLEASE GOD END THIS MADNESS AND SINK ALL SHIPS AT SEA WITH CHINESE FOOD PRODUCTS BECAUSE MY OWN GOVERNMENT IS DOING NOTHING TO PROTECT ME!