Yet More Pet Food Recalled

Menu Foods continues to add to the items already being recalled. The problem is that the recall now extends to products sold even earlier than first acknowledged.

A recall of pet food tainted with melamine, a chemical used to make plastic products, has been widened to include 22 types of dog biscuits, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday.

The biscuits, made by Sunshine Mills Inc., contain wheat gluten imported from China that contained melamine, said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the F.D.A.

Sunshine Mills, of Red Bay, Ala., manufactures branded and private label dry pet food and biscuits. The recalled biscuits include Nurture Chicken and Rice Biscuit, Ol’ Roy Peanut Butter Biscuit and Pet Life Large Biscuit.

Conrad Pitts, a lawyer for Sunshine Mills, said 80 percent of the tainted biscuits were sold by Wal-Mart, under the Ol’ Roy brand. Mr. Pitts said that the company had produced about 24 truckloads of biscuits with the contaminated gluten, and that the majority of the product was large biscuits. He said wheat gluten accounted for less than 1 percent of the total weight of the biscuits.

Until last week, when moist cat treats, dog jerky and a type of dry cat food were added to the recall, it had been limited to wet pet food sold under a variety of brand names.

Menu Foods, which last month recalled more than 90 brands of its “cuts and gravy” pet food, said yesterday that it had extended the period of time covered by its recall to include food made after Nov. 8, 2006. The company, based in Ontario, initially recalled only food made from Dec. 3, 2006, to March 6, 2007.

The ongoing and growing list of recalls means that you almost have to check back hourly or daily to see whether the recalls have affecting the pet food you may have bought. The FDA has compiled the list and provides additional information.

UPDATE:
The Chinese companies implicated in the tainted pet food are hemming and hawing over their role.

The Chinese agency that monitors food exports says China has never exported wheat or wheat gluten to the U.S.

The accused company, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development, at first said the U.S. was its main overseas customer for wheat gluten. But then the company said it had never shipped gluten directly to the U.S.

A company official was later quoted as saying it sold the suspect gluten to another Chinese food processor, and that company "probably" shipped it to the States.

This is the latest in a series of food scares in China in recent years.

Considering that the Chinese government has been notorious in its coverup of environmental disasters and poisonings, I would be reluctant to trust the Chinese government when it issues definitive statements denying a role in the pet food poisonings.