Menu Foods Recall Expands Dramatically

[ThingsGottaChange]

Apparently, this is never going to end. Look at the note that's on Itchmo's site:

(Hey Menu Foods, please just send us an email next time. Now we know why you visted 30 times today.)

They have to go to a watchdog site to find out what's going on?!?!?!?!?!?! This is just too much!

http://www.itchmo.com/read/breaking-news-menu-foods-recall-expands-dramatically-due-to-cross-contamination_20070502

Also posted in Pets Forum.

[Nikki Stone1]

1. kick and recommend

:kick:

[gulfcoastliberal]

2. No worries; it'll go into livestock feed.

A quick buck, no matter what!

[rosesaylavee]

3. Kick

[Madspirit]

4. k&r and SHIT!...n/t

[StarryNite]

5. Good grief!

Kickity, kick.

[Buzz Clik]

6. This is the strangest thing ever.

1. We know of a grand total of 16 verified pet deaths from the food (as stated by FDA).
2. Just about every pet that's died since the New Year is being blamed for this by some people.
3. The food additive from China that is being targeted has been shown to have very little toxic impact at the concentrations that have been detected in the food.
4. The suspected additive (melamine) is normally made from urea, but an excess was made in China from coal, so it's being used as a food additive to give the impression of higher protein content. (huh? An additive made from coal is less expensive than real protein? gawd)
5. That latest recall is due to "cross contamination" which means that even tinier amounts are present in the recalled food. The likelihood of any impact on any pet is essentially ZERO.
6. Intensive research is showing that under the right circumstances, crystals can form in the urine when melamine is present along with one of its derivatives/decomposition products.

Lots of people are pissed off, others are scared. And the impact of this additive clearly has been minimal.

yikes.

[LisaL]

7. There are only 16 official deaths is because they only counted

the pets who died during Menu Food food test trial. Please.

[Buzz Clik]

15. Okay. So what's the count?

You can go with Menu's 16 or Scientific American's 140 or so, or do you like the various self-reporting of over 3,000 pet deaths?

And how about the growing hysteria? What concentration of melamine (assuming that's the problem) is necessary to cause the problem in cats? In the feeding trial by Menu, only one death was a dog. (I had an otherwise healthy cat die of renal failure over 20 years ago. No hint of an impending illness. Was that Chinese melamine in Chinese gluten? Don't think so...)

Does anybody have any information about the concentration of melamine in the gluten? In the food?

It's all nuts. Nobody has any decent information, but the craziness is through the roof.

[LisaL]

17. Whose fault is it that there is no decent information? Hello?

And if it was 16 babies, no one would be saying, well, just 16 babies are dead.
Many people consider pets their children now days.

[Kool Kitty]

28. According to the FDA's website, the total deaths are 4,190.

Substantially more than 16. And why all the apprehension? Becuase I wouldn't trust any of them as far as I could throw a piano. They won't release this info, they won't release that info, because they don't want to hurt anyone's bottom line. When they say,"...little chance of danger of illness to the general public...", I think they are lying.

[Buzz Clik]

31. Really? I cannot find that. Link?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

40. No, according to the FDA, that's what some people are claiming..

but the FDA has not confirmed those deaths are due to food contamination.

[Buzz Clik]

44. Exactly.

The FDA is merely reporting what others are reporting. They have not verified anything beyond the initial 16 or 17.

[Kool Kitty]

45. Gee, sorry.

I thought because they were reporting it, it was true. My grievous error. It is still more than 14-16 cats, though.

[Shallah Kali]

29. 1 in 6 of the MenuFoods test animals died. FDA 1950 cats, 2200 dogs as of march27

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2007/03/20/pet-food-070320.html

as for the melamine concentrations the FDA and USDA don't feel the need to reveal that sort of thing. It has been like pulling teeth for the media to get them to admit anything with hard numbers. Even after the press release here ( http://www.fda.gov/ora/fiars/ora_import_ia9929.html ) naming the numbers I posted in the subject line FDA officials continued to say only 16 or 17 animals died. They won't name companies with contaminted chickens or pork. They wouldn't name companies that their of freaking tests showed had melamine in them. For an example of their double speak and mastery of vaguness read this here: http://www.doggedblog.com/doggedblog/2007/05/hey_fda_heres_a.html


The FDA is going to have the unsold hogs and chickens killed and compensate farmers with US tax dollars but keep saying don't worry everything is safe. So if anyone is acting crazy it is because of the constant lies and prevarications.

[Buzz Clik]

32. Those numbers are "self reported", not the FDA figures.

[mhatrw]

36. They all died of renal failure or they wouldn't be counted.

Call up any veterinary chain and ask them if this is real or not.

[Buzz Clik]

42. Ok. But are all renal failures attributable to melamine?

I had a cat die from renal failure due to "high ash content" in a big name cat food. We had a trade embargo with China at the time. So, I'm guessing we can't blame them for his death. Although, I could certainly go online and add his name to the list and, Bingo! one more fatality rung up to tainted cat food.

Your reactions typify exactly what I'm talking about -- lots of emotion with an incomplete set of data. Take a deep breath before you blow a blood vessel.

[mhatrw]

46. At the FDA press conference today, here's what an FDA administrator said about this.

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2007/05/03/pet-food-recall-liveblogging-53-fda-press-conference

Michael Rogers: To clarify, we’ve received over 17,000 complaints, around 50 percent alleging an animal death.

So the bare self-reported numbers (to the FDA) are far higher than 4,000. Furthermore, they are not counting any pet owners who simply grieved without complaint. Once again, if you think this crisis is minor or overblown, I advise you to call the main office of any veterinary chain.

[Buzz Clik]

48. Great. I've heard numbers as high as one million.

So what?

[mhatrw]

35. Hysteria? WTF is melamine doing in our food supply at ANY concentration?

I have a friend whose healthy 7 year old cat died of acute renal failure. My vet says that she has seen a huge increase in dogs and cats with kidney problems.

http://www.horsesass.org/?p=2861

Who knows what kind of shit is adulterating our imported and domestic food supply? But whatever it is, it’s about to hit the fan. Months after dogs and cats started dropping dead of renal failure from melamine-tainted pet food, American consumers are beginning to learn how long and how wide this contaminant has also poisoned the human food supply. Last week, as California officials revealed that at least 45 people are known to have eaten tainted pork, the USDA announced that it would pay farmers millions of dollars to destroy and dispose of thousands of hogs fed “salvaged” pet food.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Through the salvaging practice, melamine-tainted pet food has likely contaminated America’s livestock for as long as it has been killing and sickening America’s pets — as far back as August of 2006, or even earlier. And while it may seem alarmist to suggest without absolute proof that Americans have been eating melamine-tainted pork, chicken and farm-raised fish for the better part of a year, the FDA and USDA seem to be preparing to brace Americans for the worst. In an unusual, Saturday afternoon joint press release, the regulators tasked with protecting the safety of our nation’s food supply go to convoluted lengths to reassure the public that eating melamine-tainted pork is perfectly safe. ...

And if in the coming weeks this ban is finally imposed, the question we must ask government regulators is… why so late? Why did they wait until our children licked the last remaining drop of bacon fat off their fingers before alerting the public to the potential health risk, however low? It seems inconceivable that the regulators tasked with overseeing the safety and purity of our nation’s food supply did not at least imagine the potential scope of this crisis back in early March when they first learned that Chinese wheat gluten was poisoning dogs and cats. Indeed, the very fact that they were so quick to focus in on melamine as the adulterating agent suggests they at least suspected what they were facing. ...

According to one synthetic organic chemist, melamine is by far the perfect candidate. It is high in nitrogen (66-percent by weight), nonvolatile (ie, it doesn’t explode,) and dirt cheap. It is also — at least according to both the scientific literature and chemical supply catalogs — widely considered to be nontoxic. For FDA officials, the mystery never seemed to be how melamine made its way into wheat, rice and corn protein, but rather, why it was suddenly killing dogs and cats. The technical answer may center on the unexpected interaction between melamine, cyanuric acid, and other melamine by-products, but the practical answer may be much more pedestrian. Some samples of adulterated wheat gluten reportedly tested as high as 6.6-percent melamine by weight, an off the chart concentration that was likely the accidental result of some less than thorough mixing. Had this accident never occurred — had cats, with their sensitive renal systems, not been the canary in the coal mine of melamine toxicity — we might never have known that our children and our pets were being slowly poisoned by Chinese capitalism. Well, despite the FDA’s best efforts, now we know.

[jmowreader]

39. Melamine assays as protein

Here's the deal: The Chinese use a test which measures nitrogen in feed, which indirectly measures the protein in the feed. The more protein, the more expensive the feed will be.

Melamine is crammed full of nitrogen, so the simple protein test gives a higher rating to melamine-laced feed than it does to unadulterated feed of the same actual protein content.

The scary thing is, Chinese feed mills that use melamine will come right out and tell you they're doing it. No secrets here at all--they're even proud of it.

[Buzz Clik]

43. Yes, indeedy.

And, up until this incident, melamine was declared as having a very low incidence of toxicity. You had to breathe the unadulterated product to get any reaction at all.

Now this. Melamine is a player, there is no question. The specific mechanism is still in doubt.

[highplainsdem]

13. ChemNutra said Menu Foods had another supplier of wheat gluten

since they used much more wheat gluten than ChemNutra supplied them with. That other supplier has yet to be identified, and I'm wondering if this talk of cross-contamination is intended to provide cover for problems with the gluten from the other supplier.

[Beausoir]

14. This is an important post. Thank you.

I have 3 cats and 2 dogs and I am near panic about what to feed them.

SO FAR....the Canidae for my dogs is safe.

SO FAR....the Science DietK/D is safe for my cats.

You brought some reasoned words to this thread.

[Buzz Clik]

16. We're all concerned, and we're all watching carefully.

I have an old cat who's a dear friend. And we have a new puppy (6 months). We feed only dry food, so I'm guessing we're okay.

I'm really, really looking for some solid information.

[Beausoir]

24. Bless your heart. I, too, have old cats who are so dear to me. And, I have a new puppy. It's hard

to know what to buy.

So far, the Canidae for dogs, the Purina Puppy Chow and the Science Diet K/D and Fancy Feast for cats are ok.

I am now buying butcher bones from our local meat market for my dogs, as their chew toys. No more Chew-EZ.

[Buzz Clik]

33. Best of luck.

The pet food manufacturers and distributers have become pretty paranoid about this, and they'll recall any food that even <[i>might be tainted.

Hopefully, this is their wakeup call.

[mhatrw]

37. PARANOID? PARANOID?

THEY FED IT TO A BUNCH OF TEST CATS IN THEIR OWN LAB WHO THEN PROMPTLY KEELED OVER AND DIED! THAT'S THE ONLY REASON IT WAS RECALLED IN THE FIRST PLACE! THEN THEY SOLD THE SAME CRAP THEY KNEW WAS POISONED AS CHICKEN AND PIG FEED!

[Buzz Clik]

41. Uh, yeah. Overreact much?

You might consider not taking my comments out of context.

Or not. Your all-cap, bold face screeching is pretty amusing.

[mhatrw]

47. Your contention that safe products are voluntarily being pulled from the

shelves because of "paranoia" on the part of a well-meaning pet food industry is far more amusing (though, unfortunately, tragically wrongheaded).

[Buzz Clik]

49. As soon as you show me that any pet food pulled after the initial recall was dangerous ...

... or even marginal, then I'll concede all points to you. Right now, all you have is fear. (It's a familiar tactic)

[mhatrw]

50. And all you have is your faith in BushCo and huge corporations who have proven themselves to be

plenty fearsome over and over and over.

[candice]

27. And what is in the vitamins that are added as nutritional supplements to most food?

Made in China according to their usual strict quality assurances! So much for vitamins. I'm not taking any until I can find out where they came from.

[williesgirl]

8. K&R TO GET THE WORD OUT

[napi21]

9. My suggestion to everyone is never buy anything made at the Menu

processing plant! EVER!!!!!!

I worked for a Company that mader "natural Food" products like cookies, cerials, crackers, etc. There were procedures that PREVENT cross-contamination! What the hell is wrong with Menu foods????

It's certainly not that difficult to do, and I can't believe they were that sloppy!

I'll be quite surprised if Menu Foods survives this disaster, and I actually hope they don't! Matbe that will put the necessary fear in the other manufacturers of pet foods to run their process responsibly.

Nothing but BIG MONEY LOSS can motivate a businesss so well!

[SoCalDem]

22. They will lay low for a while, and then change their name & start over

It's how "biddness" is done in these days:(

[napi21]

23. Unfortunately you're probably right. Who the hell ever even heard

of Menu Foods before this mess? I sure never did!

I think we should all demand the manufacturer's name be listed on EVERY package of food! I don't mean only pet food, but ALL FOOD!

Think about it...do you know where that cheaper store brand XXXXXXX came from? NO. All it says is distributed by XXXX. IMO that's BS!

[Shallah Kali]

30. Good Idea - Manufacturer labeling Plus Country of Origin Labeling

and throw in mandatory labeling of GMOs for those leery of possible allergens, gene jumping or just plain don't wanna eat frankenfood.

[candice]

25. Menu Foods makes Wellness, which I have been feeding my cats...

...supposedly it isn't made at their Canadian facility and the vats are cleaned beforehand.

Wellness doesn't have by-products, and I doubt it has the euthanized pets, roadkill, and sick cattle that some of the cheaper brands supposedly use as their meat source. We do need labeling. I don't want to buy anything from China if at all possible, esp. food, and don't want pets killed at "shelters" and sick cattle in the pet food I buy.

[LostinVA]

34. Menu foods DOESN'T make Wellness

I called them and that's what they told me. They also don't have any wheat gluten, etc.

[mhatrw]

38. The problem is that we don't even know if the ingredients on

the label are what is in the product anymore, much less where these ingredients came from and whether they are safe to eat.

http://www.itchmo.com/read/breaking-news-diamond-and-chicken-soup-for-the-pet-lovers-soul-recalled_20070426

Due to American Nutrition’s recall, the following Diamond Pet Food can formulations are being recalled:

* Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul Kitten Formula cans
* Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul Puppy Formula cans
* Diamond Lamb & Rice Formula cans

UPDATE: Currently, none of the ingredients for the above Diamond products list rice protein concentrate. Diamond’s homepage still claims “WHEAT GLUTEN OR RICE PROTEIN CONCENTRATE IS NOT USED in any of our dry, canned or treat products.”

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. The food I feed my dogs isn't on that list, yet. Thanks for the updated list.

K&R

[FloridaJudy]

11. Same here -

When they put "Purina One" on the list, though, both my cat and my dog will be in trouble

[jazzjunkysue]

12. I switched from Nutro dog dry to Pedigree. I know mine wasn't

contaminated, but their wet was, and they didn't recall it until thousands of pets died.

So they'll not get another red cent from me.

[ThingsGottaChange]

18. Here's an excellent link to more info on food

http://www.thepetfoodlist.com/petfoods_pg1.htm

I just switched to Felidae because of this info:

Canidae (verified by company 3/28/07, updated 4/18/07)

* Brands include Canidae and Felidae
* No products made by Menu Foods
* All ingredients are grown in the US and are also processed here.
* No wheat gluten is used in their products.
* All products are free of corn, wheat, soy and all grain fractions
* Canidae does not use glutens in any form. (from website 4/18/07)
* We do not import any ingredients from China or overseas. (from website 4/18/07)

I picked up a 20# bag for $30 today at a pet store about 30 minutes from where I live. What I did discover after getting home is that it has twice the fat content as the cheaper stuff. But, you are supposed to be able to feed them alot less. I hope!

http://canidae.com/

[havocmom]

19. Thanks. eom

[ThingsGottaChange]

20. You're quite welcome! nt

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

21. Most of the foods on the expanded list are private label aka store brands

I would be wary of all private label pet foods sold through supermarkets at this time.

Take for example Hannaford private label, which is on the expanded list. Hannaford is owned by Delhaize Group, which also owns Food Lion and Kash 'n Karry, among others. So IMO any private label brand sold by a store owned by Delhaize is suspect.

If you don't know if your supermarket is part of a larger chain, you can check here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarkets_in_the_United_States

[nomatrix]

26. This is such a horrible situation

I've just switched to this brand, that I found in it's own refrigeration case at the Giant Eagle food stores..
Homestyle Select
http://www.homestyleselect.com/index.asp

It looks very good from the site. This is the second week I've been feeding it to my dog, that was only fed Natural Balance
all of his four years, and the perk is back in the pup again.

My dog is an Australian Cattle dog/ Australian Sheppard mix and has never had a loss of energy until the 1st of this year.
He started to shed, breaking out in rashes, would isolate from everyone, drink water by the bowl full. I switched to this
and now he is back to playing with his squeaky toys at night, his coat improved, not dry and just seems normal again. I used
Benadryl spray on his itchy spots and he stops licking them, so they healed and it didn't come back. I don't know if the food is related to his rashes but it's definitely related to his energy.