Tainted Pet Food Still on Shelves
This just adds to that wonderful trust we all have for these guys, doesn’t it? And notice the pet food industry lackey says that the main problem is communication. No, the problem is that some in the pet food industry import food supplies from countries with no or little control over their safety or quality.
Thanks to MSNBC for this update.
Tainted pet food still on shelves, FDA says
Officials urge store owners to double check for recalled productsWASHINGTON – Federal officials still can’t give the all clear when it comes to the nation’s pet food supply, though they assured lawmakers they’re aggressively checking stores and suppliers.
The Food and Drug Administration said it had inspected about 400 stores nationwide and still found some dog and cat food products affected by last month’s recall by Canada-based pet food maker Menu Foods Income Fund and other manufacturers. The agency asked retailers across the country to be vigilant in removing all products associated with the pet food recall, which began on March 16.
Stephen Sundlof, director of the agency’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, told lawmakers during a hearing that thousands of government and private sector workers around the country have responded to the contamination. Yet, he told lawmakers, he could not rule out the discovery of more tainted food.“We do believe we’ve got the vast, vast majority off the market,” Sundlof told members of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee.
A call for inspections
Last month, Menu Foods recalled 60 million cans of dog and cat food after the deaths of 16 pets, mostly cats, that ate its products. The FDA said tests indicated the food was contaminated with an industrial chemical, melamine.At least six pet food companies have recalled products made with imported Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical. The recall involved about 1 percent of the U.S. pet food supply.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the contamination showed that pet food as well as human food is at risk because of significant gaps in the system of regulations and inspections that governs the food industry. In particular, he said, the latest contamination shows that too few pet food manufacturers are being inspected.
“It appears that there is a light federal presence in this area and instead we rely on a patchwork of state inspection systems and voluntary guidance,” said Durbin, who requested the hearing. He also wants a new database for veterinarians and pet owners to report concerns.
Elizabeth Hodgkins, a veterinarian, said pet food labels should not be able to make safety claims without rigorous ingredient testing by the manufacturer or the company that supplies the manufacturer. She said such testing does not occur.
“The pet food safety crisis is not an unfortunate aberration but part of mounting evidence of a systemic breakdown,” Hodgkins said.
In addition, Durbin questioned why Menu Foods took so long to notify the FDA after the company first noticed test animals were getting sick and refusing to eat their food.
“I think that companies that unnecessarily delay reporting and endanger human and animal health should face penalties, severe penalties,” he said.
Durbin also asked FDA officials about a report some of the contaminated wheat gluten made it into human food. The FDA did discover wheat gluten imported from a different Chinese source that coincidently bore a lot number similar to some of the tainted wheat gluten, said Steven Solomon, of the FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs. The FDA asked an unidentified company to halt distribution of products made with the ingredient until testing revealed they were free of contamination, Solomon said.
“We did those tests very rapidly,” Solomon said. “All those tests were negative. All the wheat gluten from other suppliers has all tested negative to date.”
Company absent from hearing
Menu Foods was asked to attend the hearing, but it requested that the Pet Food Institute, a trade association for the industry, appear instead. The institute’s president, Duane Ekedahl, told the committee that pet food already is perhaps the most highly regulated product on store shelves. He noted that manufacturers are governed by the FDA and the Agriculture Department as well as authorities in all 50 states.“Pet foods are safe,” Ekedahl assured the committee.
Ekedahl said the pet food industry was also forming a commission made up of industry and government officials to investigate how the pet food became tainted and to recommend steps that can be taken to improve safety.
“If you take one thing away from my remarks today, please understand this,” Ekedahl said in written testimony. “The answer to this problem is not additional regulation, rather it is enhanced communication.”
Follow this link to read the rest of the article, watch videos and see more information.
Why is there Wheat Gluten from China in our Pet Food, Anyway?
In response to Ekedahl’s statement “The answer to this is not additional regulation, rather it is enhanced communication.”
Enhanced communication? What does that mean? Asking foreign companies to please not put bad things in their wheat gluten. What quality control can be put into place over foreign manufacturing methods?
Of course additional regulation would cost the pet food industry some money, but the alternative is be faced with distrust on the part of customers and a decline in sales?
Lets not forget about accountability – responsibilty – which can only be achieved through the court system through lawsuits – that could be an expensive proposition. for pet food companies. Avoiding accountabilty will only increase distrust from your customers. You are guilty. You must pay the consequences.
The idea of buying “wheat gluten” from another country is scarey. Don’t we have a hard enough time controlling substances in our own country?
It may actually be less expensive in the long run to get wheat gluten more locally where we have stricter standards and we have control over them.
Since so much petfood comes from one place (part of the “efficiency” of our more and more globalized economy), instead of a small localized problem, it becomes an international problem of tracking who has been affected. Does anyone keep track?
To me, this is just another example of why Big, Is not necessarily better. It is interesting that “wheat gluten” from China in pet food might be the things that wakes America up to the idea of
How can you control the quality of food manufactured from globally attained ingredients? Just asking, because I cannot see how.
Duane Ekedahl, Pet Food Institute Executive Director, asserted that pet food is the most highly regulated product on the supermarket shelf.
Ekedahl’s statement that pet food is highly regulated was challenged by Senator Durbin (IL). Durbin wanted to know how Ekedahl could say pet food was highly regulated when:
Only 30% of facilities have been inspected once or twice over a 3 year period; there is no penalty for failure to report a problem with a pet food; there is no govt. penalty for failing to recall a product; claims on labels beyond what can be made for human food are allowed; there is no requirement to report adverse events reported to the pet food manf. to anyone in a timely fashion.
Ekedahl responded that companies “do the right thing” because the marketplace will deal with it.
Durbin asked Ekedahl if he considered THE FACT of Menu Foods reporting to the FDA three weeks after they knew there was a problem was timely. Ekedahl repeatedly asserted that he did not have enough knowledge of the facts to answer this question. Durbin told Ekedahl he should have gotten the facts BEFORE he came to the hearing.
I love my Senator from Illinois holding the industry talking-head’s feet to the fire…
Pet Lover,
Great and true comments! Thanks!
Rhon,
I love your Senator Durbin too!
If you would like to watch video of Senator Durbin Grilling
Duane Ekedahl, in the senate hearings, go to my blog
Spocko’s Brain video clips of Senate pet food hearings
And while you are their you can read about the volunteer effort to get all tainted pet food off the shelves. I’ve been working with petfoodtracker.com, petconnection.com, howl911.com, itchmo.com and petsitUSA.com to organize this effort. We have created a few easy to read lists you can take to the store with you. And print out a list and help your less plugged in neighbors who don’t have the latest info. Think about the senior citizens with a pantry filled with tainted cat food!
Go to http://www.spockosbrain.com for more details.
LLAP,
Spocko
Ooops that link didn’t work. Try this.
video link of pet food safety hearings
Well, it just keeps getting worse. “Time” magazine today talks about pesticide-laden vegetables, seafood laden with salmonella and industrial pollutants, a cancer-causing dye used to enhance the color of egg yolks–it just goes on and on. Within their own borders, twelve (human) infants died and hundreds more suffered from severe malnutrition due to shoddy baby formula. Knowing the high regard in which they hold dogs there (skinning them alive to use their fur in coats exported here), our pets don’t stand a chance–but apparently neither do we humans. You can read more about it here:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1610006,00.html
I’ve located an organic farm near our city where they raise and process their own beef, poultry, lamb, and pork–free range, grass fed, and certified organic. They have a very reasonably priced special pet food ground beef mix made out of organ meats (liver, heart) and nutritious fresh trimmings from their own processing. It’s very reasonably priced, it’s also certified organic, the organ meats are very nourishing for doggies, and we’re headed out there next weekend to shop on our own behalf and to stock up for Spencer.
Hi. I just stumbled on your blog and found it very interesting. I wanted to let you know that I found a website that is giving away free samples of a pet food that is made by Life’s Abundance. It’s derived from organically fed animals and has no wheat or wheat by-products. The site is http://www.precious-pets-paradise.com and you can get it from there.
My dog loves it and I feel much safer giving my pet something that is so natural and is not on the recall list! Thought you might want to know!
Ouote “Pet foods are safe,� Ekedahl assured the committee.
Really Mr. Ekedahl? Then how do you explain the deaths of beloved family members? Ask the greiving families who have lost pets how safe they think your food is. What do your animals eat? How about your children..are you concerned about what is in their food? How do you sleep at night making comments like that? Why does the FDA not heavily fine stores that are STILL selling tainted food? Hit them in their wallets..that is the only thing they care about. Shame on all of you…from the FDA right on down the line.
[...] A personal take? The fact that there is still contaminated pet food out there on store shelves, and that the FDA seemed to imply at the hearing yesterday that there could be more recalls, are the two things worrying pet owners the most. From Joy at Dogster: This just adds to that wonderful trust we all have for these guys, doesn’t it? And notice the pet food industry lackey says that the main problem is communication. No, the problem is that some in the pet food industry import food supplies from countries with no or little control over their safety or quality. [...]
After losing three pets in one months time, the news just keeps getting worse, doesn’t it? While at the veterinarian this morning, she told me that clients tried to return their tainted foods to our Walmart and they REFUSED to take it all back!
REFUSED! What’s up with that?
What foods are still on the shealves?
Lilly,
There are foods that are on teh list that have just not been pulled off yet and there are foods that are tainted which just have not been identitified as such yet.
That means you have to check the lost AND watch your furbaby to make sure he or she is not avoiding the food you put down and that they are not acting listless or sick.