More Pet Food Recalls, dry

[watermock]

Iams, ironically is on the list.

I want to know how in the hell we have to import wheat gluten from China! We grow the wheat, ship it to China, they process it apparently, then send it back with all kinds of crap in it to feed our pets. Plastics, Rat Poison, Rat Feces it's rediculous.

Cheap TV's is one thing. I'm a little confused why the breadbasket to the world needs to import


Pet food recall expands to dry food after tests
By ANDREW BRIDGES
Associated Press

RESOURCES
pet project
FDA tests reveal chemical in recalled pet food
Menu Foods company recall information
More dog, cat owners cooking for their animals
Recipes WASHINGTON — Federal testing of recalled pet foods turned up a chemical used to make plastics but failed to confirm the presence of a cancer drug also used as rat poison. The recall expanded today to include the first dry pet food.

The Food and Drug Administration said today it found melamine in samples of the Menu Foods pet food involved in the original recall and in imported wheat gluten used as an ingredient in the company's wet-style products. 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.

Meanwhile, Hill's Pet Nutrition recalled its Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food. The food included wheat gluten from the same supplier that Menu Foods used. The recall didn't involve any other Prescription Diet or Science Diet products, said the company, a division of Colgate-Palmolive Co.

FDA was working to rule out the possibility that the contaminated wheat gluten could have made it into any human food. However, melamine is toxic only in high doses, experts said, leaving its role in the pet deaths unclear.

Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of cat and dog food, sold throughout North America under nearly 100 brands, earlier this month after animals died of kidney failure after eating the Canadian company's products. It is not clear how many pets may have been poisoned by the apparently contaminated food, although anecdotal reports suggest hundreds if not thousands have died. The FDA alone has received more than 8,000 complaints; the company, more than 300,000.

Company officials today would not provide updated numbers of pets sickened or killed by its contaminated product. Pet owners would be compensated for veterinary bills and the deaths of any dogs and cats linked to his company's products, the company said.

The melamine finding came a week after scientists at the New York State Food Laboratory identified a cancer drug and rat poison called aminopterin as the likely culprit in the pet food. But the FDA said it could not confirm that finding, nor have researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey when they looked at tissue samples taken from dead cats. And experts at the University of Guelph detected aminopterin in some samples of the recalled pet food, but only in the parts per billion or trillion range.

"Biologically, that means nothing. It wouldn't do anything," said Grant Maxie, a veterinary pathologist at the Canadian university. "This is a puzzle."

Meanwhile, New York officials stuck to their aminopterin finding and pointed out that it was unlikely that melamine could have poisoned any of the animals thought to have died after eating the contaminated pet food. Melamine is used to make plastic kitchen ware and is used as a fertilizer in Asia.

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

In a news conference, Sundlof and other FDA officials said the melamine had contaminated a shipment of wheat gluten imported from China and purchased by Menu Foods from an undisclosed supplier in the United States. At least some of the that wheat gluten was used in all the recalled wet pet food, according to Menu Foods.

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

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

New York remained confident in its aminopterin finding, said Patrick Hooker, commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture and Markets. Hooker added that neither aminopterin nor melamine should be in pet food, but that it was unclear why the latter substance would be poisonous to the cats in which it was found.

"While we have no doubt that melamine is present in the recalled pet food, there is not enough known data on the mammalian toxicity levels of melamine to conclude it could cause illness and deaths in cats. With little existing data, many questions still remain as to the connection between the illnesses and what has caused them," Hooker said.

Wheat gluten, a source of vegetable protein, is also used in some human foods, but the FDA emphasized it had found no indication that the contaminated ingredient had been used in food for people. The FDA said it would alert the public quickly if the melamine was found in any foods other than the recalled pet food.

About 70 percent of the wheat gluten used in the United States for human and pet food is imported from the European Union and Asia, according to the Pet Food Institute, an industry group. Menu Foods used wheat gluten to thicken the gravy of its "cuts and gravy" style wet pet foods, FDA officials have said.

One veterinarian suggested the international sourcing of ingredients would force the U.S. "to come to grips with a reality we had not appreciated."

"When you change from getting an ingredient from the supplier down the road to a supplier from around the globe, maybe the methods and practices that were effective in one situation need to be changed," said Tony Buffington, a professor of veterinary clinical sciences at Ohio State University.

The FDA's Sundlof said the agency may change how it regulates the pet food industry.

"In this case, we're going to have to look at this after the dust settles and determine if there is something from a regulatory standpoint that we could have done differently to prevent this incident from occurring," he said.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by watermock

Cheap TV's is one thing. I'm a little confused why the breadbasket to the world needs to import

...because the unions have killed our ability to compete on the world market?

[HEAV]

Originally Posted by listopencil

...because the unions have killed our ability to compete on the world market?

I thought the same thing a few years ago. Then I got a gig with a company and saw with my own eye's that the union wasn't the problem. It was the the guys running the board room and the investors wanting more adn more profit.


I won't deny that unions haven't striked or forced issues with onwership. But look across the country, every industry has the same issues. They want cheaper labor,parts and yet charge the same or more for the product.


Out sourcing saves money. But it kills the worker and the consumer, sometimes they are the same person.

[crazyhorse]

Originally Posted by listopencil

...because the unions have killed our ability to compete on the world market?

I'll bet they are hiring in China

[watermock]

Originally Posted by crazyhorse

I'll bet they are hiring in China

I bet they aren't actually. It's a country of worker ants, worker bees, however you want a put it. Noone on this board would last a week escept in some sanitized board room.

[shakenbake]

Originally Posted by watermock

I bet they aren't actually. It's a country of worker ants, worker bees, however you want a put it. Noone on this board would last a week escept in some sanitized board room.

I'm going for two months this summer. I will give you a review.

[Falconer]

Most commercial pet foods are complete crap anyway. A lot of people believe that Iams is a premium pet food, but it is not really better than any of the rest, except maybe for ol' Roy. Do your pets a favor and find some of the better foods that are out there today. There is a lot of information out there about the good and bad foods. Just use google and you will have tons of information.

[colosilverado]

Originally Posted by Falconer

Most commercial pet foods are complete crap anyway. A lot of people believe that Iams is a premium pet food, but it is not really better than any of the rest, except maybe for ol' Roy. Do your pets a favor and find some of the better foods that are out there today. There is a lot of information out there about the good and bad foods. Just use google and you will have tons of information.

Amen to this. We aren't raising effing cattle, so why all of the grain? Purina? it makes me laugh when that moron Mike Evans on AM950 yaps about it being so good.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/
http://www.resteddoginn.ca/petfood.php

[footstepsfrom#27]

Originally Posted by listopencil

...because the unions have killed our ability to compete on the world market?

We do compete in the world maket, but not as manufacturers. That's gone with the wind and not so much a product of unions or greedy shareholders, but the proliferation of cheap technology and information access. India graduates 80,000 MBA's a year and in 2010 will be the largest English speaking country in the world. You can get a CPA there for $200 a month. Chinese software engineers will work for $5k a year, and you can make tennis shoes in Malaysia for .20 an hour.

[HEAV]

"When you change from getting an ingredient from the supplier down the road to a supplier from around the globe, maybe the methods and practices that were effective in one situation need to be changed," said Tony Buffington, a professor of veterinary clinical sciences at Ohio State University.


Cheaper labor/materials, it's the american (Big Business) way to gain huge profits.............. it's sad what this country has become. But hey, it could be worse we could be paying $3.00 a gallon for gas! Oh ya that's next month.

[watermock]

OK...we negotiate...they give us the secret to making wheat guten and we give them briefcase nukes.

[watermock]

Purna...nuf said.

[watermock]

Cat and Dog Chow is cheap...I think it's ok with those. Beezer is charging me so he's ok and Ole' Poopy is the wet addict. He's the Noah of cats.

sounds like the Chinese are selling us crap when we could get it at home.

[TDmvp]

Mock can you add some safe NON MADE BY MENU dry foods to this post ...

[footstepsfrom#27]

Originally Posted by watermock

Iams, ironically is on the list.

I want to know how in the hell we have to import wheat gluten from China! We grow the wheat, ship it to China, they process it apparently, then send it back with all kinds of crap in it to feed our pets. Plastics, Rat Poison, Rat Feces it's rediculous.

No wonder Beezer looks so pissed. He's been chowin' down on rat poison.

[orange crusher]

Mock, where did you hear that the dry food included Iams? Here's a statement from the Iams website:

P&G Pet Care Update
March 30, 2007

As promised, we are continuing to keep you updated on the Menu Foods recall.
We know the Menu Foods recall has caused concern, frustration and anger among many pet lovers, including many of our own employees and their families. We want you to know that we care deeply, and we continue to take action on your behalf.
We want to comment on the new announcement today (Friday, March 30, 2007) by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) that they have found a substance called melamine in the wheat gluten of recalled products, and not the aminopterin, as earlier suspected by the New York Foods Laboratory.
We can reassure you:
First, there is no melamine or aminopterin in any of our Iams and Eukanuba dry pet foods on store shelves.
In fact, Iams and Eukanuba dry pet foods to DO NOT contain wheat gluten. Our dry dog and cat foods are made exclusively by P&G Pet Care and not by Menu Foods.
Pet owners can feel safe and confident in feeding all Iams and Eukanuba dry foods, as well as any wet foods that are not on the Menu Foods recall list. Click here to see the specific list of recalled wet pouch and canned products.

We want to review the key actions we’ve taken:

• We immediately worked with retailers to remove from store shelves the small number of our wet pouch and canned products affected by the Menu Foods recall.
• We immediately suspended production of all our foods manufactured at the affected Menu Foods Emporia, Kansas plant.
• We have shared all of our data and continue to cooperate fully with FDA, which is leading this important investigation.
• A task force of prominent North American veterinary health care experts, convened by Iams to review the recall, recently agreed: "Veterinarians and pet owners should feel safe recommending and feeding Iams and Eukanuba dry foods".

We want to stress again that you can confidently feed all of your pets any of our dry foods, as well as the wet foods not affected by the Menu Foods recall. If you have any questions about the recalled products, please click here to see the specific list of recalled wet pouch and canned products.
P&G Pet Care is deeply committed to pet well-being and our top priority is to help you care for your dog and cat family members. We will continue to provide you with meaningful updates. If you have additional questions, not answered on our Web site FAQs, please call us at 1-800-882-1591.

[watermock]

http://us.iams.com/iams/global/Product_Recall.htm

So why is there a recall then?

[orange crusher]

Originally Posted by watermock

http://us.iams.com/iams/global/Product_Recall.htm

So why is there a recall then?

There isn't a recall for the Iams dry food. The recall is only for cans and pouches.

[HorseHead]

Iams and Eukanuba are crap anyways people, don't buy it...not to come off as a Pet Food elitist, but buy "Wellness" or "Innova",Idon't want to hear about expensive, maybe two bucks more, tops...stop buying those Caramel Macchiatos at Starbucks, and buy some real food for your pets....

and if you can't make it to one of those specialty stores, the first ingredient on any pet food should be the meat that is the basis for it...no filler(Corn Meal, Wheat Gluten, etc.)

[watermock]

When I run out of friskies, I just crack a can of tuna...for some reason, they seem to like it.

[HEAV]

http://us.iams.com/iams/en_US/data_r...RecallList.htm


The recall is for wet food. Iam's statement is somewhat misleading. At least now every pet food manufacturer will get a closer look at from the consumer.