Today’s Update on the Pet Food Recall—4/2/2007 (Updated)

I see that some are sounding notes similar to those I did yesterday:

TORONTO — A far-reaching and ever-growing recall of tainted pet food that is suspected to have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of cats and dogs has left pet owners feeling “betrayed” by the industry.

Some observers predict it won’t be easy for the business to regain consumers’ trust.

“I think this recall has and will continue to cause pet owners to question the food they feed their pets,” said Elizabeth Higgins, a research analyst with Euromonitor.

“Many owners have already lost trust in the brands they’ve been using for years and I expect it will take some time for manufacturers to win that back.”

The recall has expanded beyond the original “cuts and gravy”-style foods originally covered to one dry food, Hill’s Prescription Diet m/d Feline Dry (available through veterinarians only), and several treats:

Since then, Hill’s Prescription Diet m/d Feline Dry food, Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food from Nestle Purina PetCare and Jerky Treats Beef Flavor Dog Snacks, Gravy Train Beef Sticks Dog Snacks and Pounce Meaty Morsels Moist Chicken cat treats from Del Monte Pet Products made between specific dates were recalled after learning wheat gluten was supplied to them from the same Chinese company.

Purina’s most recent press release is here; Del Monte’s statement is here.

At this point it would probably be prudent to 1) check the snacks you give your pets to see if they contain wheat gluten; and 2) check them against the original Menu Foods list of brands to see if their manufacturers are involved. If the treats contain wheat gluten and their manufacturers are on the list, hold back on them until we know more. An ounce of prevention, etc.

This story is still developing.

My last post on the pet food recall is here. It contains a complete list of my posts on the subject to date which, in turn, contain lots of links to FDA documents, manufacturer web sites, etc.

Update

I see that Bloomberg has gotten around to reporting that the FDA has shut down imports from the Chinese company that sold the contaminated wheat gluten:

April 2 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration stopped imports from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd., a Chinese manufacturer whose wheat gluten tested positive for a substance found in pet foods linked to animal deaths.

At least four pet-food manufacturers have pulled some of their products from U.S. shelves, including Menu Foods Ltd., which initiated the recall of 60 million cans of dog and cat food March 16. The official death count stands at 16 although the FDA has received more than 8,000 complaints.

The import alert was issued March 30 to detain shipments from Xuzhou Anying without physical examination, the FDA said. The company’s wheat gluten was found to contain melamine, a substance used to make plastic kitchen utensils and fertilizers.

“This firm’s products have tested positive,” said FDA spokesman Michael Herndon in an e-mail. “This is the only firm with positive samples.”

No one answered the phone at Xuzhou Anying, located in Pei county, Xuzhou, Jiangsu province. There was no option to leave a voice mail.

PetConnection.com, a Web site that is tracking the recall, has received reports from owners of more than 2,900 pet deaths from food-related kidney failure.

Nestle SA’s Purina Pet Care Co. recalled Alpo Prime Cuts and Gravy wet dog food March 31 after it learned from the FDA that one of its 17 facilities received contaminated wheat gluten from the same company that supplied Menu Foods.

The originator was identified as Xuzhou Anying, said Purina spokesman Keith Schopp. The Chinese company was a new supplier for Purina in mid-February.

Menu Foods produced its contaminated pet products between December and March, said company spokeswoman Sarah Tuite, who declined to name the supplier. Del Monte Co.’s pet products division used the suspected wheat gluten in the last three months, said Mary Sestric, who also declined to name the supplier. Hill’s Pet Nutrition Inc. spokeswoman Amy Thompson didn’t return a call.

I took note of this development a couple of days ago.

Unfortunately, it’s unlikely to do much good. The Chinese don’t have a free enterprise, private industry-based economy. In all likelihood this company is as much like a department of the Chinese government as anything else and, ceteris paribus, when imports from it are closed down the same darned stuff, grown, processed, packaged, stored, and shipped according to the same darned standards will be sold by some other company next week.

I also wonder whether anybody from Menu Foods or Del Monte or any of the other companies involved has ever sent representatives to China who could speak Mandarin to review the facility and its operations. Since Xuzhou is in northern Jiangsu province the people there, presumably, speak Mandarin rather than the Wu “dialect” (actually a completely different member of the Chinese language family) spoken in the south.