Dry Pet Food Now Recalled

Fear struck pet owners again on Friday when the announcement came that some dry foods will be implicated in the recall. The Federal Drug Administration tested dry food manufactured by Menu foods and discovered a chemical,called melamine, in samples of the foods involved in the original recall. Testing of the wheat gluten, which had been imported from China, showed the wheat gluten was tainted with the chemical. Scientists at Cornell University found melamine in the urine of cats sickened by the recalled wet food, and in the kidneys of a cat who had died. Melamine is used in plastics and in fertilizer in Asia.

Hill's Pet Nutrition has issued a recall of Hill's dry m/d. Prescription diet m/d is used for felines with diabetes.

"In accordance with its over-riding commitment to pet health and well-being, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc. is voluntarily recalling Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food from the market. Hill's is taking this precautionary action because during a two-month period in early 2007, wheat gluten for this product was provided by a company that also supplied wheat gluten to Menu Foods. U.S. Food and Drug Administration tests of wheat gluten samples from this period show the presence of a small amount of melamine. Prescription Diet m/d Feline Dry represents less than one half of one percent of all Hill's products."
No other Hills dry foods are affected by the voluntary recall.

An investigation of other brands is under way to determine if the contaminated wheat gluten was also used in those foods. The FDA is not yet commenting on which companies are involved as the investigation has not been completed. The FDA does not know if melamine is the only contaminant in the wheat gluten.

Last week, New York state agriculture officials identified aminopterin, a rat poison used in China, as the contaminant in the wheat gluten. Cornell scientists have been unable to confirm the presence of aminopterin.

Menu Foods President, Paul Henderson had this to say at a press conference Friday:

" We are angered that a source outside of the company has apparently adulterated the product causing this regrettable loss.
We are grateful to our customers and retailers who have been so responsible in the quick removal of affected product from the market and ask their continued diligence to assure that affected product is not accidentally restocked in their systems."

Two class action suits have been filed against Menu Foods as of this writing. It is unknown whether the latest findings will impact those lawsuits.

sources: The Wichita Eagle, Menu Foods, Hill's Pet Nutrition