Cat Food and Dog Food Recall: Pet Treats Affected, Human Contamination?

[PhilipShore]

Source: Post Chronicle

Del Monte Foods has confirmed that the melamine-tainted wheat gluten was supplied as a "food grade" additive, raising the likelihood that contaminated wheat gluten could have entered the human food supply.

According to David Goldstein of the Huffington Post, a Del Monte spokesperson wrote a reply to an e-mail query in which she says "Yes, it is food grade."

David Goldstein has more:

'Wheat gluten is sold in both "food grade" and "feed grade" varieties. Either may be used in pet food, but only "food grade" gluten may be used in the manufacture of products meant for human consumption. Published reports have thus far focused on tainted pet food, but if the gluten in question entered the human food supply through a major food products supplier and processor, it could potentially contaminate thousands of products and hundreds of millions of units nationwide.

Read more: http://www.postchronicle.com/news/health/article_21272432.shtml

[truthisfreedom]

1. Lovely. Just absa-freaking-fantabulous.

So this week we'll be seeing this story break worse each day for humans, like last week we saw a total escalation of products and brands affected for animals?

[Mojorabbit]

2. What is depressing

is you KNOW there are board meetings and frantic phone conferences going on as we speak and companies that make human food are planning their strategy for when the big recalls have to start of their food.

[tanyev]

24. First item of business: sell off as much stock as they think they can get away with

[napi21]

3. I read somewhere in a google search that it's used to stabalize vitamins.

If I remember right, they specifically mentioned Vitamin A and some others.

We MAY be talking about a problem with the AMOUNT of additive usedrather than the additive itself.

There are many, if not most food additives,both pet and human, that are lethal iftoo much is used. That may be why they've been having such a difficult time finding the real problem with the pet food.

[PhilipShore]

5. Gluten free list

Gluten free product list...in other words,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x556389

[Richard Steele]

4. The fact that the gluten SUPPLIER remains unnamed does not bode well for us.

If this stuff was ONLY in pet food, they would
have been deliberately saying so since day one.

It's RIDICULOUS to think they don't know who
this supplier is, and who they sold gluten to.
They DO know, so why are they keeping mum about it?

[hang a left]

7. I believe the supplier/manufacturer has been named.

It's the distributor that everyone is staying mum on. Come on now, we need a leaker!

[Richard Steele]

11. You are correct; I got my terminology mixed up. Thanks! nm

[hang a left]

16. no prob...

so many scandals and not enough gray matter.

[rainbow4321]

20. So the company can get it's lawyers

all lined up, shred documents, find someone else to point fingers at, and give it's execs enough time to dump any stocks in the company before they tank from the contamination announcement.

[Corgigal]

6. from the article

wheat gluten from the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. of Peixian, China ..is possibly the company. Ah, lovely.

Everyone thank a cat for exposing us humans to the harm which is in our food.

[Doremus]

10. The China company isn't the US distributor.

The fact that they're withholding the name of this company doesn't bode well.

[w4rma]

12. That's the exporter, but the importer is still being kept secret by the FDA. (nt)

[PSPS]

17. I "wonder" why they're shielding the distributor

Of course, the answer is obvious. Another bush crony, or maybe a Carlyle or Halliburton company.

[mhatrw]

32. It's because it's ADM.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a4ERxbra5CY8&refer=us

"Our product is not associated with this sad and unfortunate situation," MGP Ingredients President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Newkirk said in the statement.

Manildra, a privately held Australian food company, isn't "involved at all," General Manager Peter Simpson said in a telephone interview. "We're not supplying that company."

The FDA said March 17 that nine cats at Menu Foods died during "routine taste trials" and that four cats and a dog in the consuming public died after eating food made by Menu Foods, of Streetsville, Ontario. The Canadian company supplies pet food to retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Safeway Inc., according to the FDA.

The only other major U.S. producer of gluten is Archer- Daniels-Midland Co., Steve Pickman, MGP Ingredients vice president for corporate relations, said in a telephone interview. The ingredients may have come from outside the U.S. because about half of the U.S. supply is now imported, he said. A receptionist at Archer-Daniels Midland, of Decatur, Illinois, said no one was available to comment.

[Hekate]

8. Rec #5. What I've been worried about the whole time. Wheat gluten is an ingredient in human food too

Damn the free-traders who thought we could trust the Chinese to be on top of little things like keeping food from being contaminated. Same brilliant minds who export our jobs and don't give a damn about US labor and OSHA standards when it comes to foreign workers.
:argh:

Hekate

[pnwmom]

18. This Huffington Post article was the original, and it contains more info.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-goldstein/tainted-wheat-gluten-sold_b_44743.html

You have to wonder why the FDA is trying to cover up who the US distributer is.

"Public statements have indicated that the contaminated gluten was distributed by a single U.S. company, but since the FDA refuses to name the supplier, it is not yet known if this company also supplies human food manufacturers. It is also not yet known if Xuzhou Anying sells direct to food manufacturers in the U.S. or abroad.

"While cats seem particularly susceptible to the effects of melamine poisoning, there is little research on the substance's human toxicity. Unless and until the FDA determines otherwise, one cannot help but wonder if our sick and dying cats are merely the canary in the coal mine alerting us to a broader contamination of the human food supply."

[mhatrw]

33. Here's a good guess why.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=560863&mesg_id=560863

[Henny Penny]

23. Even if the Chinese supplied dodgy gluten it should

surely have been tested at the other end as a matter of routine, before being added to foodstuffs. (animal or human)

[Hekate]

29. Common sense & human decency would agree that it SHOULD have been tested

But in a country (ours) run for the benefit corporations now holding hands with a totalitarian regime not noted for its concern for human rights, workers' rights, the environment, or human health -- I guess a few things just kind of slipped their minds.

:argh:

Hekate

[drm604]

9. That company does sell wheat gluten intended for humans.

The company that supplied the tainted wheat gluten definitely does sell wheat gluten intended for human consumption. See this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=556595&mesg_id=556595

[Cobalt-60]

13. These curs will eventually mix toxic waste in with the food

naturally the Granola/Plutonium bars will be the ones headed for Wal Mart.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Repeat after me the food supply is safe

:sarcasm:

[intheflow]

15. Upton Sinclair Redux.

:grr:

[FiveGoodMen]

28. Don't you wish everyone had read 'The Jungle'?

Interesting side note: when I was a sophomore in high school (1976), that book was required reading, but we were told that it wasn't necessary to read the last three chapters.

So, of course, I read them and they're all about socialism as the answer to the abuses cataloged in the rest of the book. Someone decided to encourage us to skip that part and avoid angry phone calls from parents.

[Hekate]

30. Bush cronyism has set the US back a century, at least.It's enough to make the angels weep. nt

[rebel with a cause]

19. I think if this stuff was eaten by the people that have been running this

country for at least the last twenty years, and I do mean the corporations, it would be poetic justice. But it is just ironic for the rest of us to suffer because of it. The reason I say this is because as we found out that the use of certain insecticides were harmful to our health and were no longer allowed on our crops, the corporations that produced them sold them to other countries. These countries then used the product not only on their food crops but also on the food crops that were exported back to this country. They got around the laws that were set up to protect us. I don't know where the product that was used on the wheat in China came from, but I would not doubt for one minute that USA corporations might be partially to blame. Just my feelings after studying the way we have worked at using, abusing and taking advantage of so called "Third world countries" for so long. Oh well, what do I know.

[rainbow4321]

21. Other foodstuff exported by the Chinese company

http://www.itchmo.com/read/fda-pinpoints-suspected-seller-of-wheat-gluten_20070401

This company also exports wheat flour, cornstarch, sweet potato starch, protein powder, zinc oxide, carrots, garlic, ginger, and other agricultural products.

This is the only known source of contamination identified by the FDA. Unfortunately, this was never released to the media from what we can gather.

If anyone else is using supplies from this company (for human or pet consumption), they should contact the FDA ASAP.

In the alert, the FDA has now authorized the quarantine or dentention of any wheat gluten from this specific company in China and passed through the Netherlands (a transit point) without the need to inspect it. Basically preventing the supply from getting into any food stream.

[catgirl]

22. The FDA must be concerned about tainted human food

that fact that they haven't made a statement saying our food
is safe says it all. Is it in cafeteria food? Packaged food? Could
they give us a hint?

[HockeyMom]

25. Combine this with 47% drop in FDA inspections

and it makes for one dangerous situation. Who needs "terrorists" when we have our own government agencies soley out to protect corporate profits.

Why was the 9/11 Air declared safe? Wall Street PROFITS.

[peacebuzzard]

26. I have been concerned about imported agricultural products for some time.

Garlic? Christopher Ranch from Ca. has flooded supermarkets in Knoxville, TN with Chinese garlic and has quite a monopoly.

That is it. From now on I am going to buy organic and local and go out of my way for my groceries.

I am on a ring around with the pet food products and am returning more questionable pet food today.

I hope American consumers take a stand on this; this should be just the beginning of the question and answer stage.

[PhilipShore]

27. Legislative Action Center

Take action now -- contact your elected officials at the Legislative Action Center.

http://capwiz.com/fconl/home/">Link

[ripple]

31. Does anyone know where to find the updated recall list?

I'm particularly concerned because I read that some varieties of Begging Strips are now included in the recall. I give my dog at least one of those daily, but I usually buy the Target brand. Right at the moment, I'm giving her the HyVee brand, just because she needed some and I happened to be at HyVee. After I bought them, I remembered that some HyVee products had been included in the recall. I double checked the Menu Foods site and they weren't listed, so I've been giving them to her.

After reading about the latest expansion this morning, I checked the Menu Foods site again, but it doesn't appear to be updated with the latest recall info. Does anyone know where to find out exactly which foods/treats are affected? Maybe I overlooked it, but I didn't see a link to the list on the Post Chronicle site, either.

Thanks for posting this, by the way. While I seriously hope there isn't contamination in the human food supply, maybe that would at least get the FDA on the ball. It seems to me that this recall should have been much wider in scope from the day the problem was discovered. Just last week, the FDA was dragging their feet on including some dry food varieties, despite evidence of contamination.