The Washington Post reports that Del Monte foods has joined the growing list of manufacturers recalling products with tainted wheat gluten imported from China:
Another major U.S. pet food maker said yesterday that it is recalling some edible products for cats and dogs after learning from the Food and Drug Administration that the company had received tainted ingredients from a manufacturing plant in China.
Del Monte Pet Products, based in San Francisco, said that as a precautionary measure it was voluntarily recalling several items, including Gravy Train Beef Sticks, Jerky Treats and Pounce Meaty Morsels, as well as others sold under private labels.
[snip]
Several other pet food manufacturers also have been affected by recalls, including Nestle Purina PetCare Co., which makes Alpo brand dog food; Menu Foods, headquartered in Streetsville, Ontario; Proctor & Gamble's Iams and Eukanuba; and Nestle S.A., maker of Mighty Dog and other brands.
Lists, links and resources below the fold...
The FDA is compiling a list of all recalled foods. The Del Monte press release and list is not there yet, but the others are, at least those that have been recalled.
Symptoms to watch for:
Signs of kidney failure include loss of appetite, vomiting, excessive thirst and lethargy.
[Update] The wheat gluten that has been identified as the source of the problem?
The FDA announced today that it has traced the contaminated wheat gluten to a single processor, Xuzhou Anying Biological Technology of Peixian, China, but has not released the name of the U.S. distributor who supplied the product to Del Monte, Menu Foods, Nestle Purina, and Hills Nutritional. In all, more than 70 brands and over 60 million cans and pouches of dog and cat food are now part of this massive recall, as well as at least one brand of dry cat food.
And, since Del Monte announced that the wheat gluten they used was "human food grade":
Del Monte Foods has confirmed that the melamine-tainted wheat gluten used in several of its recalled pet food products was supplied as a "food grade" additive, raising the likelihood that contaminated wheat gluten might have entered the human food supply.
"Yes, it is food grade," Del Monte spokesperson Melissa Murphy-Brown wrote in reply to an e-mail query. Del Monte issued a voluntary recall Saturday for several products under the Gravy Train, Jerky Treats, Pounce, Ol’ Roy, Dollar General and Happy Trails brands.
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.
I don't think we've seen the end of this for our pets or our people.
Bottom line, review the ingredients of everything you and your pets eat, avoid wheat gluten like the plague (that it very well may be).
There has also been more insight into the Melamine poisoning aspect, in that it seems cats are more sensitive to the element than dogs, which may explain why so many more cats are impacted:
A greater sensitivity of cats to a chemical found in plastics and pesticides could explain why they’ve died in larger numbers than have dogs after eating contaminated pet food, experts said Saturday.
The small number of confirmed reports of pet deaths bolstered by a far larger number of unconfirmed anecdotal reports suggests cats were more susceptible to poisoning by the chemical melamine that tainted the now recalled pet food, officials with the Food and Drug Administration and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Saturday.
"I am concerned we have a situation where we have a sensitive species and it is the cat," said Steven Hansen, a veterinary toxicologist and director of the ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control center in Urbana, Ill.
Cats as canaries.
Links:
Here's the Del Monte Recall List: http://www.delmonte.com/...
Menu Foods, Inc. Press Release
Nestlé Purina PetCare Company Press Release
Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc. Press Release
IAMS or Eukanuba: IAMS web site.
Here's the link to make complaints to the FDA: http://www.fda.gov/...
My last three diaries about this:
- Poison in Recalled Pet Food! -- plus Healthy (safe!) Pet Food links!
- FDA reports Melamine in Recalled Pet Food!
- Hill's Prescription DRY Cat Food, Alpo Dog Food, Join Recall
SusanHu wrote a great diary today about the FDA's Weak Food Inspection that includes this letter to the FDA from Sen. Dick Durbin.
Here is a link to three dairies by anna, who has been closely following this story.
Here is one from (great name) Goldy at HorsesAss (whose story I linked to above): Tainted Wheat Gluten Sold as "Food Grade".
Has your pet been affected? Report it here: http://www.PetConnection.com
TheBigKahuna's good advice: "I'd strongly recommend pet owners who think their pets may have been exposed to the tainted food have their pets tested. If I recall correctly, I think the cost for Socks was about $15."
Important!! If your pet is sick, be sure to TELL your vet about the ingredients suspected in the poisoning (Melamine and Aminopterin). The head vet at Cornell mentioned, during his press conference, that there are TREATMENTS for the poisons, as long as the treating vet knows about it.
Menu Foods says they will reimburse expenses for pet owners who can verify their pets were impacted by the recalled food.
How to make your own cat food: http://www.catinfo.org/...
A link to Natural Pet Food Stores and Resources: http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/... (caveat: check the ingredients of any food you consider purchasing!)
And I strongly encourage all pet owners to look at natural prepackaged alternatives as reported in this thread from one of the earlier diaries (same caveat: check the ingredients of any food you consider purchasing).
If you have safe pet food alternatives you'd like to recommend, please post it on that thread, so we can link back to it!