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The company at the centre of a massive pet food contamination scare has expanded its recall to include products with earlier production dates and 27 more varieties sold in the United States, Canada and Europe.
Canada-based Menu Foods said its previously announced recall now
extended to certain "cuts-and-gravy" style wet pet food
manufactured from to November 8 to March 6. The earliest production
date previously announced was December 3.
Menu Foods also recalled an additional 20 varieties sold in the
United States and Canada, and seven sold in Europe.
Separately another company recalled dog biscuits made with
contaminated wheat gluten that is the focus of an investigation
into 16 deaths of cats and dogs.
The US Food and Drug Administration has identified an industrial
chemical called melamine in wheat gluten it said was shipped by a
Chinese company to ChemNutra Inc. of Las Vegas. ChemNutra then sold
the wheat gluten to Menu Foods and a few other companies that have
since recalled pet products.
FDA officials said they remained unsure if melamine was the cause
of cases of pet sickness and death. Limited studies have found
melamine is "fairly nontoxic," but investigators are considering if
dogs and cats might be especially sensitive to it, or if another
chemical may have been present, they said.
"We are relatively certain there is a connection here someplace,
whether the melamine or some other contaminant traveling along with
melamine," Dr Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for
Veterinary Medicine, told reporters.
Menu Foods announced in March its initial recall of 60 million cans
and pouches of wet pet food sold under various brands including
Procter & Gamble Co's Iams and Eukanuba, as well as store
brands sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Safeway Inc.
Menu Foods was unable to say how many additional units of its
products were involved in the expanded recall.
Sunshine Mills Inc of Red Bay, Alabama, said Thursday it was
recalling certain dog biscuits made during March and sold under
Nurture, Pet Life, Lassie and other brands.
Sunshine Mills said it learned from the FDA that the company had
received tainted wheat gluten. No deaths or illnesses have been
reported, the company said.
ChemNutra announced on Tuesday it was recalling all wheat gluten it
had received from the Chinese company that the FDA identified as
Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co Ltd.
The FDA has received 12,000 reports of pet illnesses in the past
three weeks. Officials have confirmed just 16 deaths but believe
the actual number is higher, Sundlof said.
Colgate-Palmolive Co's Hill's Pet Nutrition Inc has recalled its
Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food, while Nestle SA's Purina
PetCare Co recalled Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with
specific date codes.
Del Monte Pet Products has recalled certain dog treats and wet
food.
The recalled products represent about 1% of the total pet food
industry, Sundlof said. Information can be found on the
FDA website.
Also Thursday, the FDA warned consumers not to use American Bullie
A.B. Bull Pizzle Puppy Chews and Dog Chews manufactured and
distributed by T.W. Enterprises of Ferndale, Washington. The chews
could be contaminated with salmonella, the FDA said.
Representatives for T.W. Enterprises could not immediately be
reached for comment.
