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**Bumped up. BREAKING 4/20: BLUE BUFFALO RECALLS “SPA SELECT KITTEN DRY FOOD”; ROYAL CANIN NOW ISSUES U.S RECALL. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO END OF POST FOR THESE AND OTHER UPDATES.

PAT S., THE TAMMY BLOG RESEARCHER ON THIS SUBJECT, RECOMMENDS THE ITCHMO PET FORUM TO GET THE BEST COMPILED LIST OF ALL FOODS AFFECTED BY THE RECALL.

Menu Foods, a company that provides store-brand dog and cat food for over 40 retailers nationwide, has issued a recall of their food after kidney failure and ten deaths of cats and dogs. If you use store brand pet food or a major brand names like Science Diet Feline Savory Cuts, Iams, Eukanuba or Mighty Dog (among others), stop using it right now until you can determine if you have affected product. Chicken and rice should do nicely in the meantime, it will be easier on their tummies than a new pet food brand switch. And I know a furry friend or two who wouldn’t mind the treat 🙂 While previous pet food recalls have involved just dog food, an important note here is that this affects both dog and cat food and a fact not being reported by many news outlets: Of the 10 deaths, 9 have been cats. This does not mean dogs are not affected, just a serious caution for cat owners as well. Here are the details:

Dog and Cat Food Recall

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.

UPDATE:

Symptoms to look for if you think your pet has been exposed:

If a pet owner suspects their pet has been exposed to a recalled food, what symptoms should they watch for?

Some of the reports have been mentioning pets showing symptoms of vomiting, lethargy and unwillingness to eat. Kidney failure is a very serious condition and can affect cats or dogs. It can develop rapidly or take place over a long period of time. Symptoms include an increased water intake, increased volumes of urination, anorexia, vomiting and lethargy. If they see any of those signs, they should take their pet to the veterinarian as soon as they can.

The big things are just to check their foods, see if it’s on the recall list or not. If it’s not, don’t worry. If it is, switch the foods. Any pet showing symptoms needs to be checked out. If they are eating those foods, you need to tell your vet that they are eating those foods.

Also, here is the Market Watch coverage of the issue.

UPDATE 3/19 1pm PT:

Investigators probe deadly pet food outbreak

Federal investigators were still at pet food plants in New Jersey and Kansas on Monday, trying to sort out how packages of meat chunks and gravy may have proved deadly for cats and dogs…Meanwhile, a lack of further information from Menu Foods itself was proving frustrating. The company had an information line _ 1-866-895-2708 _ for concerned customers, but repeated Associated Press phone calls to the line met only with busy signals on Monday morning…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration meanwhile had investigators at Menu Foods plants in Emporia, Kan., and Pennsauken, N.J., said FDA spokeswoman Veronica Castro. Further information wasn’t immediately available, she said.

The FDA urged pet owners using the suspected brands to stop. Those with pets that may have been injured or killed should contact state FDA coordinators, using a list available through the federal FDA’s Web site, Castro said.

Here is that FDA list for Consumer Complaint Coordinators with which to make a complaint to the FDA about Menu Foods.

This link is the FDA news release about the recall which includes additional links to specific company news releases, like Nestle and Hill’s, about the emergency.

UPDATE 3/19 7:30pm PT:

The 10 reported deaths, 9 cats and 1 dog, at least 7 of those deaths occurred during Menu Foods testing of the food after consumer complaints. Any deaths of personal pets because of consuming the pet food at home are not part of that reported number. As a result, check out the new headline at USA Today:
FDA expects pet food death toll to rise

Federal regulators said Monday that contaminated wheat gluten is the most likely source of deaths in a large pet food recall, and that it is investigating whether other pet food makers got wheat gluten from the same supplier.

The Food and Drug Administration also said that it expects the number of deaths linked to the food to grow. Of the 10 so far, at least seven animals died in a test by pet food maker Menu Foods after it received consumer complaints, the FDA says. Forty to 50 animals were tested. Of the 10 deaths, nine were cats and one was a dog, the FDA said.

Because the contaminant is unknown, some retailers are taking extra precautions.

“Until we know what the problem is, we’re going to assume everything made at that plant is suspect,” says Mark Witriol, co-owner of Pet Food Express, with 31 stores in San Francisco’s Bay Area.

Along with the recalled product, Pet Food Express isn’t selling other wet foods made by Menu and other wet foods made by other manufacturers unless Pet Food Express knows Menu did not make them. The 31-store company is “fielding hundreds of calls” from consumers and even employees, says Witriol.

Now with word that Menu Foods itself caused at least 7 of the 10 animal fatalities in testing their product, all parties still unsure of the causative agent, and with expressed concern by pet shop owners like the people at Pet Food Express, I recommend that you do a few things. First, if your dog or cat food is not on the list, call the manufacturer anyway and ask them if any of their product is provided by Menu Foods. Secondly, you also may choose to stop feeding your pet any wet food until the FDA determines if the suspect wheat gluten was sold to any other food provider.

Puppy Sydney Bruce

As an example, I mentioned this in Comments, but it’s worth bringing up here, too–I called Breeder’s Choice, the maker of Avoderm which is the wet and dry food I give to Sydney. While neither Avoderm nor Breeder’s Choice is not on the list, I asked the customer service person if they had any products made by Menu. her answer was a vague, paraphrasing here, “We don’t have any food to be concerned about.” Note she didn’t answer my question, which means the answer was “yes.” When I told her that answer concerned me, she then noted that another Breeder’s Choice brand, Pinnacle, did have a food provided by Menu, but it wasn’t the “cuts and gravy” variety, so it is presumed to be safe.

For Sydney’s sake, and perhaps your pet’s as well, no Avoderm product is provided by Menu. Breeder’s Choice also told me that make all their own dry food, which is a good thing. This might be a good time to permanently switch foods–Syd was raised on Avoderm, has great skin and a silky coat, and has never had dog breath. And considering it has now been revealed that a dog and 9 cats died in Menu Foods testing, that’s another reason to not buy their product via any other brand name.

I would suggest, out an abundance of caution, for you to call your manufacturer, ask them specifically if any foods are provided to them by Menu, and if so to stop using that food until the cause of the illnesses and deaths is determined by federal investigators. Bottom line, no one knows anything yet, and while the odds are it’s the wheat gluten, better safe than sorry. Make that call.

UPDATE 3/20 12:45pm PT:

Here are a few more details emerging late yesterday and today. Now the FDA has inferred that the contamination may have occurred from a source outside the plant, and we have some comment (finally) from a Menu Foods spokesperson.

FDA Investigating Animal Deaths as Pet Food Recall Continues

“So far, we have not identified any causes of kidney failure,” Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the FDA, stressed in a press conference held late Monday. “These could include mold and heavy metals. It appears that some of the food may have been contaminated from an outside source.”

In addition, the agency is not sure that only pet food was contaminated. “Right now we don’t think people are at risk,” Sundlof said…

The cause of the deaths among the affected pets has not been determined, although all of those that died developed kidney failure after eating the affected product, the FDA said. The test involved 40 to 50 dogs and cats, the agency noted, adding that Menu Foods has started testing the pet food in question, but so far also has not found the source of the problem.

One animal expert was fairly astounded at the death toll from the test itself. “Anything that has a 25 percent mortality rate is very dangerous, ” said Steven Hansen, a veterinarian with the ASPCA’s animal poison control center in New York City.

Tuite [of Menu Foods] said her company will compensate the owners of pets that died, but did not mention a sum, the Times reported.

Also from today is some advice from the American Veterinary Medical Association about what to do if you think your have fed your pet tainted food. For all sorts of animal health news and information visit the main page of the AVMA as well as their list of useful links in the issue.

On the market front, Menu Foods is a publicly held company, and investors are dumping shares. Their stock price has plunged 59 percent since last Thursday’s close. One cat owner in Canada issued this warning to Menu Foods:

“There’s two ways Menu Foods can handle this: They can either come clean and pick up the tab or there’s going to be a class-action suit,” said Andrew Patenall, a 65-year-old English professor at the University of Toronto, whose two-year-old cat George developed acute kidney failure after eating President’s Choice branded cat food, manufactured by Menu Foods.

UPDATE 3/21 4pm PT:

More news today. According to this report, P&G has announced they are recalling all their canned/wet dog and cat food. I am still working on getting details from P&G what this actually means.

Pet food recall expanded

Indianapolis – Procter and Gamble is the latest company to recall all its wet dog and cat food, including Iams and Eukanuba. It’s made by Menu Foods, the same company that recalled all its wet-style food sold under 100 different brands…He says the latest recall by Menu Foods and now Proctor and Gamble Pet Care is the most widespread he has ever seen.

Also, the FDA has confirmed 13 cat deaths, while other reports now have it at 16. The dog death toll still stands at 1, but I’m afraid it’s likely both of those numbers will go higher. A woman in Chicago may be the first to sue Menu Foods over the death of her cat after he ate contaminated food.

There are now two phone numbers to call for information: (866) 463-6738 and (866) 895-2708.

After days of testing, the FDA and Menu Foods are still clueless about the source of or the reason for the contamination.

The pet food linked to the deaths of 16 animals has shown no signs of contamination, the manufacturer says, and the company cannot explain why the cats and dog developed acute kidney failure and died.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Paul Henderson, the chief executive and president of Menu Foods, said Wednesday the company was looking at a single ingredient. He wouldn’t identify it, but the Food and Drug Administration has said the investigation was focusing on wheat gluten.

“Our hypothesis is that it is that ingredient that in fact represents the highest probability as to the cause,” Henderson said. “But we have been unable to prove that through scientific information.”

UPDATE 3/22 11:45am PT:

Canadian Class Action Commenced By Pet Owners Against Menu Foods

TORONTO, March 22 /CNW/ – A national class action has been commenced today on behalf of pet owners who have purchased certain types of dog and cat food manufactured by Menu Foods.

The claim seeks compensation for all those who have purchased dog or cat food manufactured by Menu Foods between December 3, 2006 and March 6, 2007.

The Notice of Action, issued today in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, alleges that certain Menu Foods failed to implement quality assurance procedures and failed to adequately test the dog and cat food prior to introducing it into the Canadian market.

8:30pm PT:

Ferdinand at The Conservative Cat is also chiming in on the issue.

Personally, I’m a little perplexed about the silence from the Humane Society about the issue. I’m going to have them on the show about the return of Murder the Baby Seals season in Canada (just 5 more days until the murders begin again) and will ask them why they haven’t had much to say on this. from what I can tell, their website has one line about the story, off to the right hand column, and all it does is send people to the first FDA press release on the issue on March 17. With word that up to 10 pets died in the name of Menu Foods animal testing, what’s up with their silence?

UPDATE: BREAKING 3/23 8:30am PT:
Wheat imported from China was poisoned and used by Menu Foods

Rat poison found in pet food

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Rodent poison has been found in pet food blamed for the deaths of at least 16 cats and dogs, a spokeswoman for the State Department of Agriculture and Markets said Friday.

Spokeswoman Jessica Chittenden would not identify the chemical or its source beyond saying it was a rodent poison.

State agriculture officials scheduled a news conference Friday afternoon to release laboratory findings from tests on the pet food conducted this week.

The deaths led to a recall of 60 million cans and pouches of pet food produced by Menu Foods and sold throughout North America under 95 brand names. There have been reports of kidney failure, some fatal, in pets that ate the recalled brands. The company has confirmed the deaths of 15 cats and one dog.

And from ABC News:

Rat Poison to Blame for Pet Food Contamination

ABC News has learned that investigators have determined that a rodent-killing chemical is the toxin in the tainted pet food that has killed several animals.

A source close to the investigation tells ABC News that the rodenticide, which the source says is illegal to use in the United States, was on wheat that was imported from China and used by Menu Foods in nearly 100 brands of dog and cat food.

A news conference is scheduled for this afternoon by experts in Albany, N.Y., where scientists at the state’s food laboratory made the discovery a week after a massive recall of 60 million cans and pouches was issued.

The chemical is called aminopterin.

What investigators can’t say so far is whether this is the only contaminant, if it is in all of the recalled food, or if it’s in enough quantity in to sicken more animals.

There is some good news according to the source. Knowing the chemical should aid veterinarians who are treating animals that have been sickened by the pet food.

Aminopterin is used in the United States in, of all things, a cancer drug, according to the source.

Here is the Wikipedia page on Aminopterin.

12:30pm PT:

Here’s more from the findings by the scientists at the New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell and at the New York State Food Laboratory.

1:00PM PT:

Menu Foods is having a press conference right now about the rat poison revelation. The bottom line: they have no idea how the rat poison got into their food, and more ominously, they have no idea which of their products is contaminated.

More soon. Fox was carrying the PC live, but then cut away. I’ll have more as soon as I track it down. frankly, though, it was a PC that was based in the same old news and the announcement that Menu still knows nothing.

UPDATE 3/24 5:00pm PT:

Menu Foods confirms tainted food inhredient is wheat gluten imported from China.

CNN: Probe of tainted pet food eyes ingredient from China

…Paul Henderson, chief executive of Menu Foods, confirmed Friday that the wheat gluten was purchased from China.

Bob Rosenberg, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Pest Management Association, said it would be unusual for the wheat to be tainted.

“It would make no sense to spray a crop itself with rodenticide,” Rosenberg said, adding that grain shippers typically put bait stations around the perimeter of their storage facilities…Henderson said Menu Foods does not believe the food was tampered with because the recalled food came from two different plants, one in Kansas, one in New Jersey. Menu continues to produce food at the two plants.

11pm PT:

Tainted pet food producer expands recall

The Canadian company that sold tainted pet food blamed for at least 14 pet deaths expanded its product recall Saturday, saying it worried consumers could still find the products on store shelves.

Toronto-based Menu Foods said some of its pet foods, possibly tainted with a toxin used as rat poison, were still being sold.

The company said store owners should remove all of its products, regardless of the production date.

“As a result of reports from the FDA (US Federal Drug Administration) and various media outlets that some recalled lots of ‘cuts and gravy’ style wet pet food remain on store shelves, Menu Foods has asked all retail outlets to immediately remove all impacted varieties of wet pet food posted at www.menufoods.com, regardless of the date code,” the company said in a statement.

UPDATE 3/25 12:30pm PT:

WaPo: Natural Pet Foods Grab Attention

$100-million lawsuit filed against Menu Foods

UPDATE 3/26 11:30pm PT:

NY lab conducting more pet food tests

ALBANY, N.Y.- The laboratory that identified the poison believed to be responsible for the death of pets around the country has started testing individual components of the tainted pet food to determine which ingredient was contaminated, officials said Monday…Scientists at the New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell University and at the New York State Food Laboratory tested three cat food samples provided by the manufacturer and found aminopterin in two of them, the labs announced Friday. The two labs are part of a network created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to keep the nation’s animals and food supply safe.

Vancouver 24 Hours: Raw meals on the rise

Los Angeles Times: Websites tally more pet deaths related to tainted food
A veterinarians’ group lists at least 104 fatalities amid many more cases of food-related illness.

Hundreds of veterinarians have reported cases of sick and dead dogs and cats related to rat-poison-tainted pet food, a veterinarians’ group said Monday — far more than reported by the Food and Drug Administration.

Veterinarians Information Network, a website of 30,000 veterinarians and veterinary students, said members had reported 471 cases of kidney failure in the 10 days since Canada-based Menu Foods Income Fund announced its pet food recall.

Houston’s ABC 13: Worried pet owners turn to the web

Pet Connection, a pet information clearinghouse that hosts a popular blog, has been tracking the pet food recall from the start.

Dr. Marty Becker, a veterinarian, “Good Morning America” contributor and Pet Connection producer, said his Web site was offering people a forum to talk, “and the chorus was so loud.”…

After the recall, many veterinarians connected through another online community, VIN.com, a network for veterinary professionals. By chatting on this Web site, vets were able to discuss the incidents of acute renal failure, the condition caused by the tainted food, and advise each other on possible courses of action.

You can find Pet Connection here. There is also Dogster.com.

UPDATE 3/30 8:40am PT:

Federal Officials Discover Fertilizer in Recalled Pet Food

March 30 (Bloomberg) — U.S. federal investigators said they discovered fertilizer in samples of pet food that is blamed for killing at least 16 cats and dogs, prompting the recall of 60 million cans of Menu Foods Ltd. products.

Signs of melamine, which is used as a fertilizer in Asia, were found, Stephen Sundlof, the director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said today at a press conference in Rockville, Maryland.

Investigators found no trace of the rat poison aminopterin in the pet food, a chemical that New York state officials said last week was the likely culprit.

Facts About Melamine (HT Carol).

UPDATE 3/30 6:30pm PT:

I have been warning for weeks that everyone should be especially cautious since we do not know what other product the suspect wheat/wheat gluten from China was used in. My concerns have been confirmed by Hill’s recalling their Hill’s Pet Nutrition Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food. They announced that dry food used the same wheat gluten supplier Menu Foods used. I said on the air specifically today, that if that company scored such a huge deal with Menu, the odds were they are supplying other food outlets, perhaps both pets and humans. Here’s the report:

Recall expanded to some dry cat food

…Meanwhile, Hill’s Pet Nutrition recalled its Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food. The food included wheat gluten from the same supplier that Menu Foods used. The recall didn’t involve any other Prescription Diet or Science Diet products, said the company, a division of Colgate-Palmolive Co.

FDA was working to rule out the possibility that the contaminated wheat gluten could have made it into any human food. However, melamine is toxic only in high doses, experts said, leaving its role in the pet deaths unclear.

The dry cat food affected is specificially:

• Prescription Diet™ m/d™ Feline dry food, 4 pound bag, 52742 42770 (all lot numbers)

• Prescription Diet™ m/d™ Feline dry food, ten pound bag, 52742 42790 (all lot numbers)

The story also notes that we get 70 percent of the wheat gluten for humans and animals from the EU and Asia. My guess is that this is the equivalent of welfare for those states. Paying them for something so those leftist corrupt nations don’t collapse completely. The FDA, in light of all this, is noting it may change how they regulate the pet food industry.

…About 70 percent of the wheat gluten used in the United States for human and pet food is imported from the European Union and Asia, according to the Pet Food Institute, an industry group. Menu Foods used wheat gluten to thicken the gravy of its “cuts and gravy” style wet pet foods, FDA officials have said.

One veterinarian suggested the international sourcing of ingredients would force the U.S. “to come to grips with a reality we had not appreciated.”

“When you change from getting an ingredient from the supplier down the road to a supplier from around the globe, maybe the methods and practices that were effective in one situation need to be changed,” said Tony Buffington, a professor of veterinary clinical sciences at Ohio State University.

The FDA’s Sundlof said the agency may change how it regulates the pet food industry.

“In this case, we’re going to have to look at this after the dust settles and determine if there is something from a regulatory standpoint that we could have done differently to prevent this incident from occurring,” he said.

Ya think?

UPDATE 3/31 12:41am PT:

Now Nestle Purina has added wet dog food Alpo Prime Cuts in cans and variety packs.

Nestlé Purina, Hills join pet food recall

Nestlé Purina PetCare also late Friday said it was recalling all sizes and varieties of its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with specific date codes. The company said it, too, learned that it received wheat gluten from the same company that supplied Menu Foods and Hills.

Purina said the wheat gluten was used in “limited production” at only one of its 17 pet food manufacturing plants. The company then notified the FDA and began its recall.

Purina’s recalled products include: 13.2-ounce and 22-ounce ALPO Prime Cuts cans and 6-, 8-, 12- and 24-can ALPO Prime Cuts Variety Packs. They have four-digit code dates of 7037 through 7053, followed by the plant code 1159. Those codes follow a “Best Before Feb. 2009” date. This information should be checked on the bottom of the can or the top or side of the multi-pack cartons.

Purina’s 5.3-ounce Mighty Dog pouch products, manufactured by Menu Foods, were previously withdrawn from the market as a precaution on March 16 as part of the Menu Foods recall.

No Purina dry pet foods were affected by either recall.

Official Purina site with announcement.

Official Hill’s site with Science Diet and Prescription Diet recall details.

In other news, Menu Foods has the gall to announce their food is now “safe,” despite the fact that they still have no idea how or when the wheat gluten became contaminated, if that’s the only problem, and what the actual contamination truly is. The FDA is getting results (fertilizer/melamine) that are different from the NY/Cornell results (rat poison). No one has been able to rule out sabotage either.

Additionally, Menu admits they knew about the problem and stopped using the Chinese wheat gluten supplier a full 10 days before they issued the recall.

Menu Foods says its pet food is now safe

TORONTO — Menu Foods Income Fund, maker of the tainted pet foods at the centre of this month’s massive recall, said on Friday it is no longer using a Chinese supplier of wheat gluten after U.S. officials found the chemical melamine in some of the recalled products.

Menu Foods stopped using the supplier on March 6, 10 days before the recall was announced, Paul Henderson, Menu Foods’ president and chief executive, told a news conference in Toronto. He said all pet food manufactured by his company after that date is safe.

Yeah. I’ll be running out tomorrow to buy Menu Foods products. Won’t you? That is, after the cow finishes jumping over the moon, bin Laden surrenders, and the British say to hell with it and blast Iran up into the stone age.

In the meantime, screw every single commercial brand of pet food. Until this insanity is over, I’ll be using the Pet Diets site for information on home cooked meals for Sydney. Who knew that I would finally become a chef? They also have pet nutritional experts/consultants to help you create home cooked meals for the furry member of the family.

UPDATE 4/2 3:50pm PT:

Del Monte is recalling dog and cat snacks and wet food. This is the first recall of snack foods. Here’s the report:

Del Monte the Latest to Recall Pet Food
Melamine Hazard in Dog Snacks, Wet Dog Food

Del Monte is the latest to recall some of its pet food products. The company said it’s recalling pet treats sold under the Jerky Treats, Gravy Train Beef Sticks and Pounce Meaty Morsels brands as well as select dog snack and wet dog food products sold under private label brands.

The company said it learned from the FDA that wheat gluten supplied to Del Monte Pet Products from a specific manufacturing facility in China contained melamine. Melamine is a substance used in floor tiles, kitchenware, and fire retardant fabrics, blamed for the massive recall of Menu Foods and other pet products…

Here are the products recalled by Del Monte, according to the company’s Web site:

Brand Names:

Jerky Treats Beef Flavor Dog Snacks

Gravy Train Beef Sticks Dog Snacks

Pounce Meaty Morsels Moist Chicken Flavor Cat Treats

Store Brands:

Ol’ Roy Beef Flavor Jerky Strips Dog Treats

Ol’ Roy Beef Flavor Snack Sticks Dog Treats

Ol’ Roy Bark’n Bac’n Beef & Bacon Flavor Dog Treats

Ol’ Roy with Beef Hearty Cuts in Gravy Dog Food

Ol’ Roy with Beef Hearty Strips in Gravy Dog Food

Ol’ Roy Country Stew Hearty Cuts in Gravy Dog Food

Dollar General Beef Flavored Jerky Strips Dog Treats

Dollar General Beef Flavored Beef Sticks Dog Treats

Happy Tails Beef Flavor Jerky Strips

Happy Tails Meaty Cuts with Beef in Gravy Dog Food

Del Monte said customers can call (800) 949-3799 for more information about the recall and for instructions on obtaining a product refund. The information is also on the company’s Web site at www.delmonte.com/petfoodrecall.html.

And here is the Del Monte page which lists all their brands for people and pets. Just in case you’d like to know what else these people make.

UPDATE 4/3 12:00pm PT:

U.S. halts imports over pet-food deaths

The U.S. stopped imports of wheat gluten from a company in China, acting after an investigation implicated the contaminated ingredient in the recent pet-food deaths of cats and dogs.

The Food and Drug Administration took action against wheat gluten from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. in Wangdien, China, after the U.S. recall of nearly 100 brands of pet food made with the chemically contaminated ingredient…

Geng Xiujuan, Xuzhou Anying’s sales manager, said the company was aware of the FDA’s import alert and was looking into it. However, Ms. Geng said the company, based in the eastern province of Jiangsu, had not manufactured the wheat gluten but had bought it from companies in neighboring provinces. She said Xuzhou Anying sold it to another Jiangsu company, Suzhou Textile Import and Export Co.

I feel so much better and safer now. Not.

Pet Food Recall Expands To Dog Biscuits

The expanding list of contaminated pet foods led to action from the U.S. Senate.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin called for hearings on the Food and Drug Administration’s investigation, as well as standardized federal regulations and inspection requirements for pet food…The FDA recently added dog biscuits made by Sunshine Mills to the recall list after the company reported 20 types of the large biscuits contained potentially toxic wheat gluten from China.

FDA Release: Sunshine Mills, Inc. Issues Voluntary Nationwide Recall of Certain Branded and Private Label Branded Dog Biscuits

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Red Bay, Alabama, April 5, 2007 — As a precautionary measure, Sunshine Mills, Inc. (“Sunshine”), a branded and private-label pet food manufacturer based in Red Bay, Alabama, is voluntarily recalling a portion of its branded dog biscuits made at its Red Bay, Alabama biscuit plant during part of March 2007. These brands include: Nurture Chicken & Rice, Nurture Lamb & Rice, Pet Life Large, Pet Life Extra Large, Pet Life Large Variety, Pet Life Large Peanut Butter, Lassie Lamb and Rice, and Pet Life People Pleasers Dog Treats. Private label biscuits for six of Sunshine’s customers were also affected. A complete list of affected biscuit brands, sizes, and codes is available below or at our website, www.sunshinemills.com. Sunshine’s other biscuit brands and products that include small and medium sized biscuits were not affected. It is also important to note that dry dog and cat food and soft and chewy treats for dogs or cats manufactured by Sunshine are not affected and not included in this recall.

Update 4/18:

Menu Foods adds another product to their recall list: Natural Life. And once again they send the release to business and financial news editors, not lifestyle, not pets not general news. This was their tactic from the beginning, as they seemed to try to keep this out of the news as long as possible. Oh yeah, and check out how the present this news. They don’t say they’ve “expanded” the recall. No, they’ve chosen the interesting euphemism of “refines.” Cowards.

Menu Foods Refines Recall List

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(April 17, 2007) – Menu Foods

Attention Business/Financial Editors

Menu Foods has previously recalled wet cat and dog food produced with adulterated wheat gluten supplied by ChemNutra Inc. Over the past several days, Menu Foods continued a detailed analysis of production records at its Emporia, Kansas, plant as part of the US Food and Drug Administration’s ongoing investigation of this adulterated wheat gluten. As a result of this work, Menu Foods advises the public:

– One additional item has been added to the recall list and is shown below

– Two additional production dates of eight varieties of pet food have been added to the recall list. These eight varieties of pet food had previously been withdrawn from the market and should already be off the retailer shelves.

Natural Life Nov/22/09 Vegetarian 13.2oz Can 13.2oz 12344-07114

Here’s the Natural Life official website.

UPDATE 4/19 5:20PM PT:

A second company supplied rice gluten by Wilbur-Ellis has recalled a product. Blue Buffalo recalls Spa Select Kitten dry food.

Pet food recall expands to company using ‘human-grade’ ingredients

A pet food company that prides itself on using “human-grade” ingredients announced today it’s joining the pet food recall, pulling a cat food off the market.

The Blue Buffalo Co., based in Wilton, Conn., said some of its Spa Select Kitten dry food contained rice protein concentrate that potentially was contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical.

The rice protein came from Wilbur-Ellis Co. of San Francisco, the same company that supplied the contaminated rice protein concentrate that went into four Natural Balance Pet Foods products that were pulled off the market Wednesday.

Wilbur-Ellis announced its own recall today, pulling all lots of concentrated rice protein off the market.

Royal Canin in South Africa has announced they received poisoned *corn* gluten from China.

Johannesburg – Tests have confirmed that Vets Choice and Royal Canin dog and cat dry pet-food products contained corn gluten contaminated with melamine, says the manufacturer.

The contaminated corn gluten was delivered to Royal Canin by a South African third-party supplier and appears to have originated from China.

Those products subject to the present recall were manufactured by Royal Canin South Africa in its Johannesburg plant between March 08 2007 and April 11 2007 and were sold exclusively in South Africa and Namibia.

The Royal Canin US website has this posted:

Royal Canin USA wishes to assure pet owners that our dry and wet pet food products are not involved in the ongoing FDA investigation related to the recent nationwide pet food recall initiated by Menu Foods and other companies.

We want to inform you that the recent recall announcement
by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on April 10
does not affect any Royal Canin products sold in US retail stores or available in vet clinics.

All of our brands, including Feline Health Nutrition, Canine Health Nutrition, Royal Canin Veterinary Diets, Sensible Choice, and Kasco, continue to be available nationwide.

Whether or not you trust that is, of course, up to you. I have said from the beginning that all commercial pet food should be considered suspect. Events as they have unfolded during these weeks confirms the need to be especially cautious. If you must buy commercial food, buy only certified “organic” food. It’s become painfully obvious that the word “natural” in a pet food brand means nothing.

In the meantime, the ASPCA has issued a new warning to pet parents:

NEW YORK, April 18, 2007—The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) today urgently reminded pet parents that the pet food recall crisis, which started almost five weeks ago, is far from over—and, as such, pet parents need to stay alert to new developments as well as the health of their pets.

“Until the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has conclusively identified all the contaminants in the affected pet food, where they came from, and which products they were used in, we cannot consider this crisis over,” said Dr. Steven Hansen, a board-certified toxicologist and senior vice president with the ASPCA, who manages the ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center (APCC), located in its Midwest Office in Urbana, Ill.

“Further, the actual link between the adverse effects of melamine and the illnesses or deaths of so many pets around the country is still not clear and, as a result, what exactly is sickening and killing our pets is still a mystery,” said Dr. Hansen.

Please go to their website and read the whole thing as well as their other coverage.

UPDATE 4/20:

As I expected, Royal Canin has now issued a re all of pet food sold in the United States. Here are the details of the recalled product:

ROYAL CANIN SENSIBLE CHOICE® (available in pet specialty stores nationwide)
– Chicken Meal & Rice Formula Senior DRY DOG FOOD
– Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Puppy DRY DOG FOOD
– Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Adult DRY DOG FOOD
– Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Senior DRY DOG FOOD
– Rice & Catfish Meal Formula Adult DRY DOG FOOD

ROYAL CANIN VETERINARY DIETâ„¢ (available in veterinary clinics)
– Canine Early Cardiac EC 22â„¢
– Canine Skin Support SS21â„¢
– Feline Hypoallergenic HP23â„¢

RC, of course, insists all their other products are fine. Yeah. My initial caution to you remains: consider all commercial per food suspect until we get answers from everyone we can trust. So far, that has not happened.

Here is the RC announcement page, and here is their official site.