Talk:2007 pet food recalls/Version1

Menu Foods has been at the heart of the pet food recall

The 2007 North America pet food recall began on March 16, 2007 when the Associated Press reported that Menu Foods Limited was recalling dog food sold under 53 brands, and cat food sold under 42 brands, after an unknown number of animals suffered kidney failure from tainted food. Four other companies have since recalled wet pet food and the U. S. Food and Drug Administration maintains a web page linking to their detailed lists of brands and dates.[3]

Symptoms

Pet owners were advised to monitor their animals for the following signs of possible kidney failure that may be associated with the unknown toxicant: loss of appetite, lethargy, depression, vomiting, diarrhea, sudden changes in water consumption, and changes in the frequency or amount of urination. It was advised that pets exhibiting these symptoms should be taken for veterinary care as soon as possible, even if the animal did not eat any of the recalled pet food, as these signs may be indicative of other illnesses.

Background

Overview

On Saturday, March 16, 2007, Menu Foods issued its first press release, announcing the recall. Nestlé Purina also recalled one brand of its dog food. On March 20, a class action lawsuit in the United States was brought in federal court in Chicago On March 22, the Animal Medical Center in New York City, a top veterinary hospital, said that the organization already knew of 200 cases and expect "thousands" of pets to eventually be affected. Also on March 22, a class action lawsuit was filed at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto against the company, alleging negligence. A similar suit was filed in Windsor, Ontario. By that time, the company's stock had fallen 47% since the announcement of the recall on March 16.

Based in Streetsville, Ontario, Canada, Menu Foods is the largest maker of wet cat and dog food in North America. Menu Chief Executive and President Paul Henderson said the company had received an undisclosed number of complaints that pets were vomiting and suffering kidney failure. Pending lawsuits allege that Menu Foods was aware of problems as early as December 2006 and United States Senator Dick Durbin has called the subsequent expansions of the recall and the U. S. Food and Drug Administration response "tragically slow". At least 471 cases of poisoning have been reported and 104 animals have died. Experts are concerned that the death toll could potentially reach into the thousands and the US FDA acknowledges receiving more than 12,000 complaints. At least one human who ate the contaminated pet food became sick as well.

In response to the recall, Menu Foods established two hot-lines for customers to call. The company also provided a complete list of the recalled products on its website.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is conducting an investigation on the Menu Foods recall and stated that seven out of fifty subject animals died in tests conducted on the manufacturer's suspect dog and cat foods after complaints surfaced regarding the products. The U.S. FDA investigation is focusing primarily on wheat gluten from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd, a trading company in China, as the likely source of contamination. The general manager for Xuzhou Anying denied that his company exported goods and says that they are researching who might have exported their product. The wheat gluten was imported by ChemNutra and distributed to Menu Foods and two other pet food manufacturers as well as The Scoular Co., a pet food ingredient distributor.

In press reports, wheat gluten has been characterized as a filler and as a protein source. An FDA FAQ on the recall describes it as a mixture of proteins which serves as a filler, binder, and gravy thickener. Investigations ruled out mold and toxic heavy metals as contaminants. Following the FDA's announcement, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Nestlé Purina, and Del Monte all issued recall notices for specified pet food products. These companies were criticized for responding too slowly.

Some brands affected reassured customers in other parts of the world that their pet food supplies were not harmed. For instance, Iams released a press release to Australian and Japanese customers stating that the pet food recall does not affect their pet food supplies. Notices targeted to customers outside of North America also contained notices for North American customers to visit the companies' North American websites to find information about the recall.

The rat poison (aminopterin) hypothesis

On March 23 the compound aminopterin, supposedly used outside the United States as rat poison, was found in samples of recalled pet food by the New York State Food Laboratory. This information was announced in a joint statement by New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker and Dr. Donald Smith, dean of Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine. Menu Foods announced they would begin inspections of all production facilities and ingredients, but had not confirmed the claim as of Friday. Company President Henderson said only "We've identified a correlation with a single ingredient and we've stopped using that ingredient."

On March 24, Menu Foods requested all of the recalled brands and products, regardless of date, be removed from store shelves, according to the Food and Drug Administration. This procedural change was meant to ensure that contaminated products are not inadvertently left on the shelves. This action does not represent an expansion of the recall; the list of brands and products being recalled remains the same.

On March 27, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center expressed concern that the problem may not yet be fully understood and that other contaminants may be involved, noting that "clinical signs reported in cats affected by the contaminated foods are not fully consistent with the ingestion of rat poison containing aminopterin".

A report (focussed on aminopterin, not melamine) on the official Chinese People's Daily website from the Chinese General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine stated that "The poisoning of American pets has nothing to do with China".

FDA Investigation

On March 30, the FDA announced that a form of the chemical melamine has been found by multiple researchers in the food, in samples of the suspect wheat gluten used to make it, and the kidneys and urine of affected animals. They could not confirm the presence of aminopterin — which may have been confused with folic acid.[4] The FDA also stated that the contaminated wheat gluten had been shipped to a second, unnamed manufacturer of dry pet foods, but was unsure whether it had made its way into any dry food. “We are in the plant right now,” said Michael Rogers, director of the division of field investigations in the office of regulatory affairs for the F.D.A. “At this time, we’re not certain any dry food was made with that wheat gluten. As soon as we find out what dry food, if any, was manufactured, we will announce it publicly.” At a March 31 news conference, the FDA revealed that some samples of the gluten contained as much as 6.6% melamine, and "you could see crystals in the wheat gluten". Melamine had previously been considered low risk, with previous studies showing low toxicity in rats and dogs. The effects of melamine on cats have not been studied, but researchers speculate that cats may be unusually sensitive to the chemical.

It has been suggested that cooking during the manufacture of the pet food causes the loss of nitrogen from the Melamine, leaving ammonia, a poison, and guanidine, a muscle stimulant used as a pharmaceutical. The symptoms may conform to those of ammonia poisoning. However Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, says ""Melamine is not very toxic as a chemical, so we're wondering why we are seeing the kinds of serious conditions, especially the kidney failure, that we're seeing in cats and dogs... We are focusing on the melamine right now because we believe that, even if melamine is not the causative agent, it is somehow associated with the causative agent, so it serves as a marker".[5]

The FDA issued an alert to its field personnel that they should block import of wheat gluten from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company Ltd., and subject wheat gluten from China and the Netherlands to increased scrutiny.

Menu Foods has confirmed the FDA's findings about melamine and many other previously reported details, and asserted that newly produced food made without the suspect wheat gluten was "safe and healthy", and that, unlike the recalled food, it was testing "very well and in a manner consistent with historic norms". However, newly produced food would not be shipped immediately, as the company's priority was completing the recall of the implicated pet food.

Expanding Wheat Gluten-related Recalls

March 30, Hill's Pet Nutrition announced that it was recalling a specialized dry cat food, Prescription Diet "m/d", because it also contained the suspect gluten. The recalled food is sold through veterinarians for cats with obesity or diabetes. Additionally, Nestlé Purina issued a late-night press release announcing its recall of all sizes and varieties of its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food. These two companies came in for harsh criticism in the blogosphere for making their announcements late on Friday (and, in Nestlé's case, long after close of business), leaving concerned pet owners unable to contact them until the following Monday.

On Saturday, March 31, Del Monte Pet Products took a voluntary recall action immediately after learning from the FDA that wheat gluten supplied to them came from a specific manufacturing facility in China. A Del Monte representative told Huffington Post blogger David Goldstein that the gluten was sold as "food grade" rather than "feed grade", raising the likelihood that it had ended up in human food as well.

On April 3 the FDA announced that ChemNutra was recalling wheat gluten that it had imported from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development -- one of ChemNutra's three Chinese wheat gluten suppliers. Shipments of the recalled grain were made between November 9, 2006 and March 8, 2007 when ChemNutra was contacted by a pet food manufacturer about suspected contamination. Contaminated grain had been shipped to three different manufacturers of pet food and one distributor who only supplies the pet food industry, indicating that the contaminated gluten did not reach the human food supply.

On April 5 Menu Foods widened its recall to include twenty additional varieties and products made after November 8, nearly one month earlier than the previous December 3 date. Also on April 5 Sunshine Mills announced that they had manufactured 20 types of large dog biscuits with potentially contaminated wheat gluten imported by ChemNutra.