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Menu Foods Expands Recall, Questions about Other Brands

China Arrests Executive Involved in Tainted Exports

By Lisa Wade McCormick
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 3, 2007

• FDA Confirms Probe of NUTRO Pet Food Deaths, Illnesses • Evidence Destroyed in Menu Foods Case May Hamper Other Lawsuits • Pet Food Class Action Preemptively Thrown Out • More Pet Foods Added to Salmonella Recall • Lawsuits On the Trail of Nutro, Canidae Pet Foods • FDA Halts Illegally Medicated Animal Feed • Pet Owners Warned about Chicken Jerky Products • Mars Extends Pet Food Recall; More Salmonella Found • Mars Recalls Cat Food Sold at Wal-Mart due to Salmonella • Hartz Recalls Rawhide Chips After Possible Salmonella Contamination • Pet Owners Eligible For $24 Million in Landmark Melamine Settlement • Internet Rumor Claims Cocoa Mulch Causes Dog Deaths • Mars Recalls More Pet Food; Possible Salmonella Contamination • Mars Petcare Recalls Some Pedigree Dog Food • Expert Finds Unexplained Pet Deaths 'Not Consistent' • Illness, Death Dog Nutro Pet Food • Feds Raid PETCO Warehouse in Illinois • Pet Owners Not Thrilled with Poison Food Settlement • CDC Links 2006 Salmonella Outbreak to Dog Food • FDA Orders Illinois Pet Food Maker to Clean Up Its Act • String of Illnesses Afflicts NUTRO-Fed Pets --- • More about Pet Food Recalls ...

Menu Foods of Canada has expanded its recall to include more than 200 new varieties of canned dog and cat food.

The action comes on the heels of its April recall of wet pet foods made with melamine-tainted wheat gluten--imported from China--and supplied by ChemNutra, Inc.

The products involved in this latest recall do not include that tainted wheat gluten, the company said. These products were manufactured during the same time that ChemNutra’s wheat gluten was used at any Menu Foods plant.

The company said it took this action to prevent any cross-contamination.

“Menu Foods has received a report from a customer and has received study results, both of which indicate cross-contamination,” the company said in a written statement.

The latest recall involves 99 varieties of cat food sold under 42 brand names, including Sophistacat, President’s Choice, Natural Ultramix, and Best Choice. The dog foods involved in this recall include 121 varieties sold under 25 brands, including Stater Brothers, Schnucks, Nu Pet, and Hill Country Fare.

Menu Foods also added two varieties of pet food--for its European market--to its recall list.

The company estimates its out-of-pocket expenses for the total recall will be $45 million.

In March, Menu Foods announced a massive recall of 60 million containers of wet dog and cat food sold throughout North America. The company recalled those products after learning pets that ate the food suffered kidney problems or died.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has since confirmed the presence of two chemicals in the imported wheat gluten and rice protein used to make these and other pet foods now under recall.

Those chemicals are melamine and cyanuric acid. Melamine is a chemical used in plastics and fertilizers; cyanuric acid is used to chlorinate pools. Neither is approved for use in pet foods.

The presences of these chemicals triggered one of the largest pet food recalls in history—18 companies have recalled more than 5,300 pet food products in the past six weeks.

The FDA says it’s received reports that 1,950 cats and 2,220 dogs have died after eating the tainted pet food. The FDA also says it’s received more than 17,000 consumer complaints about dogs and cats becoming sick or dying after eating contaminated pet food.

Grieving Pet Owners

ConsumerAffairs.com has also received scores of complaints about pets becoming sick or dying from the tainted food. The complaints are from worried and grieving pet owners across the country.

They’re pet owners like Christine P. of Colonia, New Jersey.

“My dog died in two weeks from massive body shut down, liver and heart failure,” she wrote us. “I was feeding her Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy that was on the recall list from Purina. She was an older dog, but healthy, and was just at the vet a couple months ago for her shots and nothing major was wrong.”

Christine says she immediately stopped feeding her dog the Alpo Prime Cuts when she heard about the recall.

By that time, however, her dog was too far gone.

“She refused to eat anything . . . she could not walk, was fainting, coughing, throwing up, and having loose bowels. I immediately brought her to the vet and had chest x-rays, and urine and blood sample done.”

Her veterinarian recommended she immediately see a specialist. “But before I could get her an appointment she died in my arms--gasping for air.

“Emotionally I am a wreck. I had her for so long. She was my buddy and I can’t get over it. . . I am in tears and mentally at a loss. No money can ever bring back my best friend.”

Christine says tighter regulations are needed to protect the safety of human and pet food.

“This should not be allowed to happen.”

Nutro Max

Angelique H. of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, agrees.

Her dog--a Chow-mix she rescued off the streets--died after eating a brand of food that isn’t on the recall list: Nutro Max dry dog food.

Makito

“Makito was only four-years-old and died Monday, April 30, within four days of me buying a new bag of Nutro Max dry dog food,” Angelique told us today. “This (new bag) was the only major change in his diet and he was never out of my sight. He was fine on Sunday until 2 a.m. when he started vomiting, became lethargic, and had bloody diarrhea. By the time I took him to the hospital the next day he was in shock. His system shut down and he died around 4:30 p.m.

“This needs to be stopped,” she adds. “The company refuses to acknowledge there is a problem, but if you search the Internet you will find many, many people saying the same thing happened to them. This food needs to be recalled now. No one should have to go through what I went through.”

ConsumerAffairs.com has received a handful of similar complaints about pets becoming ill after eating Nutro Max dry food.

We left a message for the company this morning, but no one with Nutro had returned our call by late afternoon.

The company’s Web site, however, states: “No Nutro dry foods, biscuits, or treats are affected (in the recall).”

Angelique is furious the company hasn’t recalled its dry dog food—or listened to its customers.

“What appalls me is that Menu Foods and Nutro have had, I’m sure, many complaints like mine and they’re not doing anything. It’s all a matter of dollars.”

She adds: “You trust that their food is going to be alright and then you find out that it’s not. This has been very tragic for me.”

Pet owner Sondra K. understands that grief—and frustration.

Her cat became sick after eating another brand of pet food that’s not on the recall list.

“My cat has been eating IAMS Dry Original cat food and has become ill with kidney problems,” the Dallas, Texas, pet owner says. “IAMS said they are not responsible (because) that dry food has not been recalled.”

Sondra switched to another brand—Royal Canin. But a short time later, the company recalled that food, too.

“The cat has been extremely ill and is starting to show symptoms again. He has to be checked every two weeks.”

Sondra blames the pet food manufacturers and China for her cat’s illness—and the emotional and financial toll it’s had on her family.

“The cat almost died and suffered tremendously after this gross act of negligence by the pet food manufacturers and the country of China.”

In related news, Chinese authorities detained the general manager of one of the companies accused of selling contaminated wheat gluten to pet food suppliers in the United States, according to The New York Times.

A Chinese police spokesman told The Times that Mao Lijun, head of the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company, is being held in coastal Jiangsu Province, about 320 miles northwest of Shanghai.

The FDA has identified Xuzhou Anying and another Chinese company in nearby Shandong Province as the only sources of the contaminated ingredients that led to the massive pet food recall.

The Chinese government, however, said Xuzhou Anying purchased its wheat gluten from 25 different manufacturers--and the company may just be a supplier. Xuzhou Anying has said it did not manufacture the tainted wheat gluten shipped to the United States. The company said it received the tainted ingredient from other, unnamed sources.

The Chinese government also said Xuzhou Anying did not declare the contaminated wheat gluten it shipped to the United States as a raw material for feed or food. Instead, it listed the ingredient as a non-food product, which meant it was not subject to mandatory inspection by China.

Mr. Mao’s arrest may be a sign that China is stepping up its own investigation into the pet food scandal and show its willingness to cooperate with FDA officials, who arrived in that country on Monday.

U.S. food inspectors are in China to examine the plants that manufactured the melamine-tainted wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate.

The Chinese government had initially denied allegations that its exports could have caused the deaths in so many pets. The government now says it’s unlikely that melamine could cause such harm to these dogs and cats. China also banned the use of melamine in the vegetable proteins it exports or those used in domestic food.

More about the Pet Food Recall ...

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