Cat And Dog Food Recalled

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pet owners were worried Saturday that the pet food in their cupboards could be deadly after millions of containers of dog and cat food sold at major retailers across North America were recalled.

Menu Foods -- a major manufacturer of dog and cat food sold under Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger and other store brands -- recalled 60 million containers of wet pet food Friday after reports of kidney failure and deaths.

An unknown number of cats and dogs suffered kidney failure and about 10 died after eating the affected pet food, the company said in announcing the North American recall.

Product testing has not revealed a link explaining the reported cases of illness and death, the company said.

"At this juncture, we're not 100 percent sure what's happened," said Paul Henderson, the company's president and chief executive officer.

However, the recalled products were made using wheat gluten purchased from a new supplier, since dropped for another source, spokeswoman Sarah Tuite said. Wheat gluten is a source of protein.

'Cuts and gravy' food sold in cans, pouches recalled
The recall covers the company's "cuts and gravy" style food, which consists of chunks of meat in gravy, sold in cans and small foil pouches between December 3 and March 6 throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The pet food was sold by stores operated by the Kroger Co., Safeway Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and PetSmart Inc., among others, Henderson said.

Menu Foods said it makes pet foods for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers. It is also a contract manufacturer for the top branded pet food companies, including Procter & Gamble Co.

Proctor & Gamble announced Friday the recall of specific 3 oz., 5.5 oz., 6 oz. and 13.2 oz. canned and 3 oz. and 5.3 oz. foil pouch cat and dog wet food products made by Menu Foods but sold under the Iams and Eukanuba brands. The recalled products bear the code dates of 6339 through 7073 followed by the plant code 4197, P&G said.

Menu Foods' three U.S. and one Canadian factory produce more than 1 billion containers of wet pet food a year. The recall covers pet food made at company plants in Emporia, Kansas, and Pennsauken, New Jersey, Henderson said.

Henderson said the company received an undisclosed number of owner complaints of vomiting and kidney failure in dogs and cats after they had been fed its products. It has tested its products but not found a cause for the sickness.

"To date, the tests have not indicated any problems with the product," Henderson said.

FDA also working to target brands
The company alerted the Food and Drug Administration, which already has inspectors in one of the two plants, Henderson said. The FDA was working to nail down brand names covered by the recall, agency spokesman Mike Herndon said.

Menu Foods is majority-owned by the Menu Foods Income Fund, based in Ontario, Canada.

Henderson said the recall would cost the company the Canadian equivalent of $26 million to $34 million.

Below are lists of specific brands recalled by Menu Foods, in addition to Proctor & Gamble's recall of certain Iams and Eukanuba products. Menu Brands lists the brands on its Web site, www.menufoods.com, and advises consumers to call 1-866-895-2708 for more information.

Recalled cat foods
Americas Choice; Preferred Pets; Authority; Best Choice; Companion; Compliments; Demoulas Market Basket; Fine Feline Cat, Shep Dog; Food Lion; Foodtown; Giant Companion; Good n Meaty; Hannaford; Hill Country Fare; Hy-Vee; Key Food; Laura Lynn; Li'l Red; Loving Meals; Main Choice; Nutriplan; Nutro Max Gourmet Classics; Nutro Natural Choice; Paws; Presidents Choice; Price Chopper; Priority; Save-A-Lot; Schnucks; Sophistacat; Special Kitty; Springfield Pride; Sprout; Total Pet; My True Friend; Wegmans; Western Family; White Rose; and Winn Dixie.

Recalled dog foods
America's Choice; Preferred Pets; Authority; Award; Best Choice; Big Bet; Big Red; Bloom; Bruiser; Cadillac; Companion; Demoulas Market Basket; Fine Feline Cat; Shep Dog; Food Lion; Giant Companion; Great Choice; Hannaford; Hill Country Fare; Hy-Vee; Key Food; Laura Lynn; Loving Meals; Main Choice; Mixables; Nutriplan; Nutro Max; Nutro Natural Choice; Nutro; Ol'Roy; Paws; Pet Essentials; Pet Pride; President's Choice; Price Chopper; Priority; Publix; Roche Bros; Save-A-Lot; Schnucks; Springsfield Pride; Sprout; Stater Bros; Total Pet; My True Friend; Western Family; White Rose; Winn Dixie and Your Pet.

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l.michelle said:

I think it's still just the meat and gravy. It's kind of scary just how many brands of dog food are affected by this.

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ALBANY, New York (AP) -- Rat 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.

The toxin was identified as aminopterin, state Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker said in a statement. Aminopterin is used to kill rats in some countries but is not registered for that use in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The officials did not say how they believed it got into the pet food. (Watch why devastated pet owners are suing )

The substance was found at a level of at least 40 parts per million in tested cat food samples, according to Donald Smith, dean of Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Aminopterin, also used as a cancer drug, is highly toxic in high doses. It inhibits the growth of malignant cells and suppresses the immune system.

The Food and Drug Administration has said the investigation was focusing on wheat gluten in the food. Wheat gluten itself would not cause kidney failure, but the common ingredient could have been contaminated by heavy metals or mold toxins, the FDA said.

State and FBI officials said they knew of no criminal investigations in the case.

The pet 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 several reports of kidney failure in pets that ate the recalled brands, and the company has confirmed the deaths of 15 cats and one dog.

Menu Foods last week recalled "cuts and gravy" style dog and cat food. The recall sparked concern among pet owners across North America. It includes food sold under store brands carried by Wal-Mart, Kroger, Safeway and other large retailers, as well as private labels such as Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba.

Menu Foods is majority owned by Menu Foods Income Fund of Streetsville. The company also makes foods for zoo cats, but those products are unaffected by the recall.

The company's chief executive and president said Menu Foods delayed announcing the recall until it could confirm that the animals had eaten its product before dying. Two earlier complaints from consumers whose cats had died involved animals that lived outside or had access to a garage, which left open the possibility they had been poisoned by something other than contaminated food, he said.

Menu Foods planned a media teleconference for later Friday, a spokesman said.

A spokesman for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he was not aware of any criminal investigation involving the tainted food. FBI spokesman Paul Holstein in Albany said Friday he was not aware of any FBI involvement in the case.

"I don't know where we'll go from here," he said.

A complete list of the recalled products along with product codes, descriptions and production dates was posted online by Menu Foods. The company also designated two phone numbers that pet owners could call for information: (866) 463-6738 and (866) 895-2708.

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New Pet Food Recall Centres On Dry Cat Nourishment
Friday March 30, 2007
It's happened again.

Just hours after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirmed it had found a chemical used in the making of plastics in some recalled pet food, another major manufacturer has stepped forward with a new recall.

Hill's Pet Nutrition, a well known and well respected company, has issued a voluntary call back of some of its best selling cat food.

And for the first time since the crisis began earlier this month with some Menu Foods items, this one centres on dry feed.

If you have Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food, stop using it immediately. The company believes there could be contaminated wheat gluten in the product.

The giant firm notes the same source that provided the component to Menu also sent it to them over the past two months.

And if there's melamine present in one shipment as the FDA claims, it could also be in the one they received.

The list of products owners should immediately stop using includes:

Prescription Diet m/d(tm) Feline dry food UPC Code: 52742 42770
(all date codes) 4 lb. Bag

Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food UPC Code: 52742 42790
(all date codes) 10 lb. bag

The recall does not apply to Prescription Diet m/d Feline canned food, which doesn't contain the suspect substance.

It's the second Hill's product pulled from the shelves since the emergency first surfaced.

Science Diet Savory Cuts Feline canned cat foods, manufactured by Menu Foods, is also temporarily unavailable.

The company isn't saying your animal is in danger if you've been feeding it the food in question. But given what's happened to its competitor, it's not willing to take any chances.

It plans to start producing new product without the suspected tainted ingredient soon but insists all its other food is safe.

For more information, concerned pet owners can call 1-800-445-5777 or visit http/www.hillspet.com/ for details.

Chemical substance found in recalled pet food

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Another Brand Of Pet Food Is Being Recalled In The U.S.
Saturday March 31, 2007
Nestle Purina PetCare Company is recalling all sizes and varieties of its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with specific date codes.

The pet food company found that a limited amount of the food contains a wheat gluten from China that was found to be contaminated with a chemical found in plastics and pesticides.

Purina says products available in Canada are safe since neither of the recalled pet foods are sold here according to a release issued on Saturday.

The same U.S. supplier also provided wheat gluten, a protein source, to a Canadian company, Menu Foods in Mississauga, Ontario.

In the last two weeks, the company has recalled 60 million containers of wet dog and cat foods sold under nearly 100 brands after there were reports of pets dying of kidney failure after eating the food.

Late Friday, a dry cat food was added to the list of recalled items for the first time. Hill's Pet Nutrition said its Prescription Diet Feline dry food also included the tainted wheat gluten.

Hill's, a division of Colgate-Palmolive Co., is so far the only company to have recalled any dry pet food.

Menu Foods and the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the pet food industry, have refused to identify the company that supplied the contaminated wheat gluten.

Menu Foods said the only certainty was that imported wheat gluten was the likely source of the deadly contamination, even if the actual contaminant remained in doubt.

Federal testing of some recalled pet foods and the wheat gluten used in their production turned up the chemical melamine which is used to make kitchenware and other plastics.

It is both a contaminant and byproduct of several pesticides, including cyromazine, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Melamine is toxic only in very high doses and has been shown in rats to produce bladder tumours, according to the EPA.

About 70 per cent of the wheat gluten used in the U.S. for human and pet food is imported from the European Union and Asia, according to the Pet Food Institute.

"The important point today is that the source of the adulteration has been identified and removed from our system," said Menu Foods chief executive officer and president Paul Henderson. He suggested his company would pursue legal action against the supplier.

The federal pet food testing failed to confirm the presence of aminopterin, a cancer drug also used as rat poison, the FDA said. Cornell University scientists also found melamine in the urine of sick cats, as well as in the kidney of one cat that died after eating some of the recalled food.

An FDA official said that it was not immediately clear whether the melamine was the culprit. The agency's investigation continues, said Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

The FDA was working to rule out the possibility that the contaminated wheat gluten could have made it into any human food.

Experts at Ontario's University of Guelph detected aminopterin in some samples of the recalled pet food, but only in very small percentages.

New Pet Food Recall Centres On Dry Cat Nourishment

Tests Find Melamine, Not Rat Poison, In Recalled Pet Food

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