I know many Dogsters have had questions regarding this recall, here is the latest update:

Mars Petcare US Issues Voluntary Recall of Everson, PA Plant Dry Pet Food Product due to Potential Salmonella Contamination

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – FANKLIN, TENNESSEE – SEPTEMBER 12, 2008 – TODAY, MARS PETCARE US ANNOUNCED A VOLUNTARY RECALL OF PRODUCTS MANUFACTURED AT ITS EVERSON, PENNSYLVANIA FACILITY. THE PET FOOD IS BEING VOLUNTARILY RECALLED BECAUSE OF POTENTIAL CONTAMINATION WITH SALMONELLA SEROTYPESCHWARZENGRUND. THIS VOLUNTARY RECALL ONLY AFFECTS THE UNITED STATES. 

SALMONELLA CAN CAUSE SERIOUS INFECTIONS IN DOGS AND CATS, AND, IF THERE IS CROSS CONTAMINATION CAUSED BY HANDLING OF THE PET FOOD, IN PEOPLE AS WELL, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN, THE AGED, AND PEOPLE WITH COMPROMISED IMMUNE SYSTEMS.  HEALTHY PEOPLE POTENTIALLY INFECTED WITH SALMONELLA SHOULD MONITOR THEMSELVES FOR SOME OR ALL OF THE FOLLOWING SYMPTOMS: NAUSEA, VOMITING, DIARRHEA OR BLOODY DIARRHEA, ABDOMINAL CRAMPING AND FEVER. ON RARE OCCASIONS, SALMONELLA CAN RESULT IN MORE SERIOUS AILMENTS, INCLUDING ARTERIAL INFECTIONS, ENDOCARDITIS, ARTHRITIS, MUSCLE PAIN, EYE IRRITATION, AND URINARY TRACT SYMPTOMS. CONSUMERS EXHIBITING THESE SIGNS AFTER HAVING CONTACT WITH THIS PRODUCT SHOULD CONTACT THEIR HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS.

PETS WITH SALMONELLA INFECTIONS MAY BE LETHARGIC AND HAVE DIARRHEA OR BLOODY DIARRHEA, FEVER, AND VOMITING. SOME PETS WILL HAVE ONLY DECREASED APPETITE, FEVER AND ABDOMINAL PAIN.  ANIMALS CAN BE CARRIERS WITH NO VISIBLE SYMPTOMS AND CAN POTENTIALLY INFECT OTHER ANIMALS OR HUMANS. IF YOUR PET HAS CONSUMED THE RECALLED PRODUCT AND HAS THESE SYMPTOMS, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR VETERINARIAN.

Please go read all the information to make sure you have all the facts. You can also go directly to the Mars site and click on the different food logo’s to see if what you bought is affected.

Thanks to USA Today for this article.

Tainted pet food suit settled for $24 million
By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY

Menu Foods, other pet food makers and retailers involved in last year’s massive pet food recall will set up a $24 million cash fund to compensate pet owners, according to a proposed settlement filed Thursday in federal court.

If the settlement is approved by the court, the fund is expected to be set up and disbursed over a period of months. Unlike many large settlements, consumers will get cash rather than coupons.

The vast majority of the fund will go to pet owners whose pets were injured or died as a result of kidney failure, which was linked to the contaminant discovered in some of the recalled pet food.

Damages supported by documentation, such as veterinary receipts, may be paid in full. Claimants also could get $900 per claim for undocumented losses, according to the agreement filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.

The settlement requires that eligible claimants’ dogs or cats ate a pet food recalled between March 16, 2007, and now. Coverable expenses include veterinary bills, pet food costs, burial costs, replacement pet costs, property damage and lost wages to care for sick animals.

The fund includes only $250,000 to compensate pet owners for food purchases, because most people have already been reimbursed for recalled pet food. Another $400,000 is allocated for people who had pets screened that were found to be healthy.

In addition to Menu, defendants include pet-food makers Del Monte, Hill’s Pet Nutrition and Iams; retailers such as Wal-Mart and importers ChemNutra and Wilbur-Ellis.

The fund is expected to compensate thousands of pet owners in the U.S. and Canada who bought recalled pet foods made by Menu and 11 others. The products had a contaminated ingredient from China that sickened dogs and cats.

The $24 million is in addition to $8 million that pet food makers have already paid to pet owners. Legal fees and expenses, which haven’t been determined, will come out of the fund. The settlement, negotiated over the past seven months, would resolve more than 100 lawsuits by more than 250 plaintiffs brought in the U.S. and a dozen in Canada.

Follow this link to read the rest of the article.

Thanks to ConsumerAffairs.com for this update.

Menu Foods Settles Pet Food Class Action
Thousands of dogs and cats sickened by contaminated pet food

By Lisa Wade McCormick
ConsumerAffairs.Com

The company behind the largest pet food recall in United States history — one blamed for the deaths and illnesses of thousands of dogs and cats in North America — has agreed to settle lawsuits with pet owners.

Menu Foods Income Fund announced the tentative settlement on Tuesday.

The Canadian-based company said it could not disclose terms of the agreement, which is subject to the approval of U.S. and Canadian courts.

“It’s a comprehensive settlement,” Amy W. Schulman, a lawyer for Menu Foods, told MSNBC. “It would resolve all the claims.” The lead attorney for pet owners agreed and said she’s confident a final agreement will be reached.

Tuesday’s settlement comes just a little more than a year after Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of tainted pet food.

The company took that action after dogs and cats across the country suffered kidney problems or died after eating the company’s food.

Menu Foods initially blamed the contamination on a chemical called Aminopterin, which is used as a rat poison and to treat cancer.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later discovered the chemical melamine in the imported wheat gluten used in the pet food. Melamine is used to make plastics.

Unapproved chemicals
In December, veterinarians blamed the dogs’ and cats’ deaths on the combination of two chemicals FDA officials found in the tainted pet food: melamine and cyanuric acid, which is used to chlorinate pools.

Neither chemical is approved in pet food.

Veterinarians said those two chemicals can combine and form crystals in the dogs’ and cats’ bodies. And those crystals can impair the animals’ kidney function.

“Either one of those chemicals alone wouldn’t cause these (deaths),” Dr. Barbara Powers, immediate past president of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) and director of Colorado State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, told ConsumerAffairs.com. “It has to be the combination of the two.

“So it’s not melamine alone.”

Pet owners in 19 states — and Ontario — filed dozens of lawsuits against Menu Foods in the weeks that followed the March 16, 2007, nationwide recall of dog and cat food. Those cases were consolidated in a federal court in Camden, New Jersey.

The lawsuits alleged unfair and deceptive trade practices, negligence in failing to provide adequate quality control and breach of implied and express warranties. Some consumers also claimed they suffered emotional trauma after their pets became sick or died.

Pet owners sought compensation for their veterinary bills.

Companies named in the lawsuits — besides Menu Foods — included Del Monte Foods Inc. of San Francisco; Nestle of Stamford, Conn.; Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati; Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd. in Pixian, China; and Suzhou Textile Import and Export Co. in Jiangsu, China.

Those defendants — and Menu Foods product liability insurance company — will cover the costs of the settlement.

Menu Foods’ estimates the nationwide recall cost the company $53.8 million.

The company said pet owners with potential claims should not contact Menu Foods regarding the tentative settlement. When a final agreement is reached — and claims are processed and approved — the administrator of the settlement fund will notify pet owners.

U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman set a May 14 hearing in New Jersey to consider the settlement. A final hearing date in Canada is not yet scheduled.

Follow this link to read the rest of the article.

Indictments Handed Down in Tainted Pet Food Scandal
4 People Sold Chemical as Food: FDA
By Dan Shapley

Three businesses and their owners have been indicted by a federal grand jury today, meaning they will face trials over allegations related to the melamine-tainted pet food that sickened pets throughout the United States last year.

The Food and Drug Administration made the announcement, labeling it a “scheme to import products purported to be wheat gluten into the United States that were contaminated with melamine. These products were used to make pet food.”

Named in two separate but related indictments are:

Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co., LTD., a Chinese processor and exporter of plant proteins, and Mao Linzhun, its owner and manager.

Suzhou Textiles, Silk, Light Industrial Products, Arts and Crafts I/E Co. LTD., a Chinese export broker, and Chen Zhen Hao, its president.

ChemNutra, Inc., a Las Vegas, Nevada corporation that buys food and food components from China to sell to U.S. companies in the food industry, and its owners, Sally Qing Miller and her husband, Stephen S. Miller. Sally Q., a Chinese national, is the controlling owner and president; Stephen S. is an owner and CEO.

The 27-count indictments charge all three companies and four individuals with delivering adulterated food that contained melamine, which is believed to have sickened pets, and related offenses.

Here is how the FDA described the indictments:

The indictments allege that more than 800 tons of purported wheat gluten, totaling nearly $850,000, was imported into the United States between Nov. 6, 2006, and Feb. 21, 2007. According to the indictments, SSC falsely declared to the Chinese government that those shipments were not subject to mandatory inspection by the Chinese government prior to export.

Melamine can be used to create products such as plastics, cleaning products, glues, inks, and fertilizers. Under certain conditions, melamine mixed with wheat gluten can make the product appear to have a higher protein level than is actually present. Melamine has no approved use as an ingredient in human or animal food in the United States. Wheat gluten is a natural protein derived from wheat or wheat flour, which is extracted to yield a powder with high protein content. Pet food manufacturers often use wheat gluten as a thickener or binding agent in the manufacture of certain types of pet food.

ChemNutra contracted with SSC, a Chinese registered export broker, to purchase food grade wheat gluten, according to the indictment. SSC then entered into a separate contract with XAC to supply the wheat gluten it needed to fulfill its contract with ChemNutra.

The indictments allege that the products purported to be wheat gluten were misbranded because the labels incorrectly represented that the purported wheat gluten had a minimum protein level of 75%.

On March 15, 2007, a pet food manufacturer alerted FDA to the deaths of 14 cats and dogs, several reported by consumers and several that died during routine taste trials conducted by the company. The animals were reported to have developed kidney failure after eating pet food that had been manufactured with the purported wheat gluten.

The FDA did not indicate what penalties are possible based on the charges.

Bad Pet Food May Have Killed Nearly 350
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — More than 300 dogs and cats may have died earlier this year as a result of eating contaminated pet food, a survey released Thursday shows.

There were no accurate counts earlier on how many pets had died from eating contaminated food, although estimates had run from a few dozen to several thousand.

The Michigan State University study showed the cause of death may have been related to melamine and cyanuric acid, two food contaminants that turned deadly when pet food manufacturers combined them.

“When combined, they form crystals which can block the kidneys,” said Wilson Rumbeiha, an associate professor in Michigan State’s Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health.

“Unfortunately, these crystals don’t dissolve easily. They go away slowly, if at all, so there is the potential for chronic toxicity,” Rumbeiha said.

Rumbeiha found that 347 cases met the criteria for what he called “pet food-induced nephrotoxicity.” The cases involved 235 cats and 112 dogs.

A request for comment was left Thursday with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which oversees pet food safety among its other duties.

Michigan State based its findings on data collected from veterinarians, veterinary technicians and pathologists from April 5 through June 6.

The survey was commissioned by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians.

The Michigan State study found that more cats and smaller dogs got sick than larger dogs, and that the most cases of animals sickened by the contaminated food occurred in Texas, Illinois and Michigan.

About a quarter of the affected animals already had a condition that made them more susceptible, such as kidney or cardiovascular disease.

“The good news is we are not seeing any new cases,” Rumbeiha said

Follow this link to read the rest of the article.

Audet & Partners, LLP Files First-Of-Its-Kind Class Action Complaint in U.S. Against China-Based Company

Suit Seeks Relief for Violation of Chinese Consumer Protection Law on Behalf of Pet Owners Impacted by Melamine Poisoning

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 8 /PRNewswire/ — The law firm of Audet & Partners, LLP has filed a class action lawsuit against Binzhou Futian Biological Technology, Co., Ltd., a company based in Binzhou, China, seeking relief under the laws of the People’s Republic of China and California. The complaint, filed in California State Superior Court (San Francisco) (Case #: CGC-07-465924), seeks damages and other relief arising from injuries to pet owners whose dogs and cats became sick or died from ingesting melamine.

As alleged in the complaint, the named plaintiff’s beloved cat died due to complications associated with melamine poisoning from pet food. “It’s time to hold all companies, regardless of the location of the business, financially and legally accountable for distributing toxic materials into the United States stream of commerce,” said lead attorney William M. Audet, managing partner of Audet & Partners, LLP.

“Our firm’s legal research has revealed that the law in the People’s Republic of China actually provides for potential liability for distributing ‘impure or fake materials’ in products such as dog and cat food,” said Attorney Audet. “We intend to argue that the China-based company is liable under both California law and applicable Chinese law.”

The complaint asserts class-wide claims against Binzhou Futian Biological Technology under the provision of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Consumers and under the Consumer Protection provisions of the law of the State of California.

As a separate cause of action against the Chinese-based company, the complaint asserts a claim based on law adopted Oct. 31, 1993 by the Fourth Session of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People’s Congress. Legal research indicates this may be the first-of-its-kind claim, but as noted by Attorney Audet, “While the claim may be the first of its kind, our client’s ability to obtain relief is consistent with well-established law in the United States.”

We can help keep the memories of those who died much too early alive. If we value the lives of all of out pets we MUST make sure these corporate crimes are not swept away from public memory! We must fight for safer foods and better labeling of country of origin so that those who callously taint food products can be identified and punished.

Thanks to Mike for meowing in this article from USA Today.

Pet-food death toll unlikely to be known

By Julie Schmit and Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

The number of dogs and cats killed by contaminated pet food recalled this year will probably never be known, the Food and Drug Administration says.

The FDA received a record 18,000 consumer calls after the largest pet-food recall ever started in mid-March. Officials said in May about half alleged a pet death.

But tying a pet death to the food requires information such as test results from pets’ tissue and blood samples, which the FDA doesn’t have in most cases, it says.

“The sad truth is that we will probably never know with any confidence the number of animals that fell victim to the pet-food poisoning,” says FDA spokeswoman Julie Zawisza.

In May, FDA official Michael Rogers told reporters the FDA expected to announce “in total the number of confirmed deaths associated with these recalled products.”

Zawisza says Rogers based his comment on the best information at the time. The FDA did devote 400 people, a huge number for the agency, to monitor the recalls, collect food samples and take consumer reports. But unlike in human food-borne illness cases, there was no Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff to do the bulk of the investigation to link illnesses to products.

The FDA early on confirmed 16 pet deaths, but that number is meaningless because so many reports weren’t investigated.

Three groups provide more insight about the death toll:

•The American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, which includes 1,300 medical professionals, is analyzing about 400 cases, mostly of dead pets. The cases include lab results. About two-thirds involve cats. There’s no way to know how many cases went unreported, says Barbara Powers, AAVLD president.

•The Veterinary Information Network, which includes 20,000 veterinarians, received almost 1,500 death or illness reports from veterinarians, says Paul Pion, VIN president. VIN plans to follow 700 to 1,000 of those to see if medical data point to food. Pion says many cases probably went unreported. He and Powers estimate a death toll of at least 1,000.

•Banfield, The Pet Hospital, a network of 620 hospitals, confirmed recall-related deaths of nine cats and two dogs out of 26 pets autopsied, says Nancy Zimmerman, senior medical adviser.

Pet-food ingredients were contaminated by melamine, a chemical added by Chinese manufacturers to make the ingredients seem more protein-rich. Most of the more than 100 types of recalled foods were made by Menu Foods.

Follow this link to read the rest of the article.

A complete listing of recalls can be found in the FDA Enforcement Report

North Shore Animal League also has compiled a list.

I’m reading this but I just don’t buy it. This sure sounds like a whitewash to me. These are the same people who kept reassuring us that the recall wasn’t that bad and hadn’t reached the human food chain. That was before they even looked at whether or not it happened.

Okay, maybe each individual doesn’t get a massive dose of melamine but this isn’t like getting drowned in water where the amount is the crucial factor. The important fact here is that melamine even in very small amounts is toxic to living creatures. It doesn’t take a pound of it in your body to permanently disable or kill you. The right combination is shown to cause autoimmune dieases. So years later when you’re wondering why you have fibromyalgia or diabetes even though it does NOT run in your family, you eat healthily, etc. the tainted chicken is long gone but it has left its scars on your body. Besides, these poisons stay in bodies, building up over time.

Until the FDA and USDA admit there is a serious food importation problem and set about closing the holes through which tainted foods and supplements enter North America, I cannot believe or trust them when they try to make me stop paying attention.

In defense of the FDA and USDA, they are outmanned and outgunned when it comes to imports. Many of the recall problems seem to come from having too little money and people trying to watch all food products coming into the country. We as a society have got to realize it costs money to keep food safe and fully fund these two agencies. If we continue to try to hamstring these agencies with budgets that are way too small, we’ll be guaranteeing that both us and our furbabies will continue to be slowly poisoned by low-cost yet deadly food imports.

FDA/USDA Joint News Release: Scientists Conclude Very Low Risk to Humans from Food Containing Melamine

Media Inquiries:
FDA Press Office: 301-827-6242
USDA Press Office: 202-720-4623
Consumer Inquiries:
888-INFO-FDA

May 7, 2007

There is very low risk to human health from consuming meat from hogs and chickens known to have been fed animal feed supplemented with pet food scraps that contained melamine and melamine-related compounds, according to an assessment conducted by scientists from five federal agencies.

In the most extreme risk assessment scenario, when scientists assumed that all the solid food a person consumes in an entire day was contaminated with melamine at the levels observed in animals fed contaminated feed, the potential exposure was about 2,500 times lower than the dose considered safe. In other words, it was well below any level of public health concern.

The risk assessment is an important new science-based component of the continuing federal joint investigation into imported wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate from China that contained melamine and melamine-related compounds.

The risk assessment was conducted by scientists from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This team is now compiling a scientific assessment of the risk to animal health associated with ingestion of animal feed containing melamine and its compounds.

FDA and USDA are in the process of identifying a group of experts to convene a scientific advisory board that would be charged with reviewing the risk assessment. This group would also be asked to contribute to future scientific analysis related to the risk of melamine and its compounds to humans and animals.

In the course of the investigation, it was discovered that pet food was contaminated by wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate that contained melamine and its compounds. Subsequently, scraps of contaminated pet food that contained only low levels of melamine were distributed to farms in a limited number of states and added to the feed consumed by swine and poultry. These scraps constituted only a small percentage of the farm animal rations. In addition, melamine is known to be excreted in animal urine. When exposure levels are much higher, as was the case with cats and dogs, the melamine and its compounds appear to cause the formation of crystals in the kidney systems, resulting in kidney damage. There was no indication of kidney damage in hogs. Both hogs and chickens known to have been fed contaminated feed appear to be healthy.

This dilution factor was an important piece of data considered in the multi-agency science-based human risk analysis and helps to support the conclusion that there is very low risk to human health from eating meat from animals that were fed the contaminated product. This conclusion supports the decision announced on April 28 not to recall meat from animals that were fed contaminated product.

Currently, swine and poultry on farms suspected of receiving contaminated feed are being held under state quarantine or voluntarily by the owners. In several cases, feed samples have tested negative for melamine and related compounds. These tests were conducted by federal laboratories or state laboratories using approved methods. It is assumed that because only small amounts of the contaminated feed were mixed with other rations, the melamine and related compounds were no longer detectable. USDA has concluded that, based on the human risk assessment and the inability to detect melamine in the feed samples, these animals no longer need to be quarantined or withheld from processing.

In other cases, feed samples have tested positive for melamine and related compounds; feed samples were not available; or feed samples have not yet been submitted for testing. These animals continue to be withheld from processing, but are not yet being culled, pending the results of the animal risk assessment. This assessment is expected to be completed within one week. At that time, USDA will determine whether these animals can be released for inspection and further processing.

USDA and FDA continue to conduct a full and comprehensive investigation. As additional information is confirmed, updates will be provided and decisions will be made using the best available science to protect the public’s health.

To ensure no further contaminated products enter the U.S., the federal government will continue to monitor imported wheat and corn gluten as well as rice protein concentrate and isolates arriving from all countries destined for human and animal consumption. The FDA import alert for these products sourced from China remains in effect and U.S. Customs and Border Protection will continue laboratory testing of the products as they enter the U.S. The inspections are a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of products entering at U.S. ports of entry. There is no evidence to suggest products bound for the human food supply are contaminated.

For additional information about the pet food and contaminated feed investigation, go to www.fda.gov or www.usda.gov. The human safety/risk assessment will be available online upon completion of an executive summary.

####

USDA Fact Sheet : Melamine and Analogues Safety/Risk Assessment

I’m glad to see the activity but I worry that the Chinese AND the FDA will try to pin everything on one or two supposedly rogue operators. Its very apparent that the system is broken and ALL food stuffs from China (including things such as ascorbic acid put in our foods and drinks to increase Vitamin C levels) need to be BLOCKED. Stop the imports until China fixes its system (if it can). Until then, a few arrests mean nothing.

Thanks to Morgan the Pirate Gato for meowing in this news from the New York Times.

China Makes Arrest in Pet Food Case

By DAVID BARBOZA
Published: May 4, 2007

SHANGHAI, May 3 — The general manager of one of the companies accused of selling contaminated wheat gluten to pet food suppliers in the United States has been detained by the Chinese authorities, according to police officials here and a person who was briefed on the investigation.

Mao Lijun, head of the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company, is being held in coastal Jiangsu Province, about 320 miles northwest of Shanghai, though a police spokesman in Pei County declined to say on what charges.

In a telephone interview a few weeks ago, Mr. Mao denied any knowledge of how melamine, an industrial chemical, had adulterated pet food supplies sold under his company label earlier this year. He also insisted that his company had never exported any wheat gluten and that his products were only sold in the domestic market.

But regulators in the United States identified Xuzhou Anying and another Chinese company in nearby Shandong Province as the only sources of the contaminated ingredients that led to one of the biggest pet food recalls in American history.

Scientists are still trying to explain how melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, fertilizer and surface coatings but not considered very toxic, caused so many deaths.

The contamination — which affected some of the leading American pet food brands — has killed 16 animals and sickened thousands of others, according to the F.D.A.

The arrest of Mr. Mao may be an indication that the Chinese government is stepping up its own investigation into the scandal and also trying to show its willingness to cooperate with Food and Drug Administration investigators who arrived in China on Monday.

Concerns about the quality and safety of China’s agriculture exports have already led to an American ban on all wheat gluten entering the country from China and a warning for importers to sample or test all food and feed additives coming from this country.

Last month, South Africa also announced a pet food recall after more than 30 dogs died from eating food contaminated with melamine-tainted ingredients imported from China.

The Chinese government had initially reacted angrily to suggestions that Chinese food exports could have been the cause of death in so many American pets. At one point, the Chinese government even insisted that the country had not exported any wheat gluten to the United States this year.

People briefed on the United States investigation also complained that the Chinese government was reacting slowly to efforts by American regulators to get information from China as well as visas to visit the country.

But last week, with the pet food scandal widening and touching off global concerns, the government dropped the denial and only insisted that it was unlikely melamine could cause such harm in pets. Last Friday, however, China banned the use of melamine in vegetable proteins that are made for export or for use in domestic food.

The government also approved the visas for regulators to travel here in the hopes of finding the source of the contamination.

The Chinese government now appears to be cooperating with American regulators. Last week, the F.D.A. issued an import alert circular that said the Chinese government had evidence that Xuzhou Anying was not the manufacturer of the tainted wheat gluten but may have had as many as 25 wheat gluten suppliers.

ChemNutra, the Las Vegas company that bought the wheat gluten and resold it to pet food makers in the United States, said it thought that Xuzhou was the manufacturer.

Regulators also said that Xuzhou had failed to disclose to China’s export authorities that it was shipping food or feed products to the United States and thereby avoided having its goods checked by food inspectors.

The Xuzhou shipments to ChemNutra were made through another Chinese company, the Suzhou Textiles Silk Light Industrial Company.

Despite its denials of knowing anything about melamine contamination, Xuzhou appears to have sought to buy large supplies of melamine, even in the weeks after the pet food recall.

The company had posted more than a dozen advertisement on the Internet seeking supplies of melamine scrap, the impure waste of an industrial chemical that animal feed producers here often mix into the feed to artificially increase the reading of the protein.

The producers here do that, many acknowledge, to cheat buyers into thinking they are getting higher grade feed, even though the melamine has no nutritional value.

On March 21, Xuzhou Anying had posted this on an Internet trading site called EC21: “We urgently need a lot of melamine scrap.”

Calls made today to the other Chinese supplier under suspicion, the Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Company, went unanswered.

Despite the ban on melamine in vegetable protein, chemical companies in China continue to say they sell melamine scrap to animal feed companies and even to food companies that make bakery items.

Follow this link to read the rest of the article, get more information and see pictures.