Pet food and other pet related recalls

[Zach]

An estimate on pets killed or made sick by the tainted food - 39 000.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070410/ap_ ... ood_recall

It certainly would be incredibly hard to confirm what's what....I mean I'm betting every illness/bug/cramp/weird behavior from any cat or dog is being blamed on this right now.....disaster. I suppose it could be worse.

[Tiliquagirl]

Last week someone poisoned and killed the dogs of one of the kids I look after, how wrong is that!

[Tigergenesis]

Because only about 30 percent of pet food plants are inspected every three years, quality control is based largely on self-regulation. Individual companies are supposed to inform the FDA when it appears that pet food coming from their plants may have been compromised

.

In the case of Menu Foods, three weeks elapsed from when the company first became aware that animals were getting sick until a recall was issued -

Full article http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... i-news-hed

CFO sold stock prior to pet food recall http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070411/BUSINESS07/70411054/0/BUSINESS07

Recalls in South Africa http://allafrica.com/stories/200704130385.html

[mouseinamilkbottle]

Two pet deaths reported in Puerto Rico

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070415/ap_ ... hBvGO3IxIF

[Nature's Gift]

Even though it is still essentially an American food products issue, it has hit the Australian pet food market hard. There have been news articles and shows on how to make your own pet food - Hopefully, some good can come out of it - if nothing else, at least some animals will be fed a better diet.

[mouseinamilkbottle]

Even though it is still essentially an American food products issue, it has hit the Australian pet food market hard. There have been news articles and shows on how to make your own pet food - Hopefully, some good can come out of it - if nothing else, at least some animals will be fed a better diet.

Angel (our dog) gets fed tinned food that's pretty good anyway because she's allergic to artificial colours and flavours.

Her tinned food? Oddly enough it's called...wait for it...Nature's Gift!

[Nature's Gift]

Get this .................. my vet recommended a tinned food to keep on hand just in case. And I nearly feel over when he told me what it was called - "Nature's Gift".

They named a dog food after Pinkle!

[Tigergenesis]

I was checking something for Lil Skinker and I came across something interesting I thought I'd mention. Dick Van Patten's pet food, called Natural Balance, is not on the recall list (I'm pretty sure it isn't), yet they have a warning on their site about a couple of their foods that pets are getting sick from (similiar symptoms to those getting sick from foods on the list). Read the warning here: http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/ They say they are working with the FDA and the cause is unknown - note that the foods do not contain wheat gluten in the ingredient list.

[evil pixie]

That's really surprising; Nat Balance is really top-grade stuff (I've heard that Dick Van Patten has eaten the stuff before; at least the wet food ).

[Arkangel]

I was in a dollar store before Easter to stock up on basket fillers, and their shelves were loaded with cans of Iams and rawhide. Normally this store only stocks about a 6 foot wide section of pet supplies. The entire aisle was full of canned food and rawhide. I never went back to check recalled batch numbers, but I am very suspicious about it. I guess no one is buying in the regular stores so they shifted products to the dollar stores.

[evil pixie]

boy i hope not; that is just wrong.

[Bird_Brain]

Rice Gluten contaminated with Melamine in Natural Balance foods.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070418/pet_food ... .html?.v=4

I also heard (basically a rumor) that this melamine was intentionally added to increase the protein rating (nitrogen content which is used to measure protein content). Whether this is true or not, I have no idea. So please dont quote me on this until you have found proof of this.

[Tigergenesis]

Thanks for that update.....I don't think I listened to the news at all today and totally missed it.

[KyleWeiss]

Rice Gluten contaminated with Melamine in Natural Balance foods.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070418/pet_food ... .html?.v=4

I also heard (basically a rumor) that this melamine was intentionally added to increase the protein rating (nitrogen content which is used to measure protein content). Whether this is true or not, I have no idea. So please dont quote me on this until you have found proof of this.

I heard this as well, that they sneak in melamine (which is a type of plastic) into the food to up the protein rating for cheap. That just disgusts me. I just bought a food processor for making my own food. I'm done with canned pet food. Done. Finished. Unless it's Wellness or Merrick, which will be sparing.

KW

[Arkangel]

Warning! Long windy post ahead: *dusts off soapbox*

Personally, I think officials are grasping at straws. They delayed the recall and announcing the contamination as long as possible so they could determine where the problem was before they announced it, and now that the recall happened people are demanding answers and officials are scrambling.
I find the melamine "added for increasing protein" story ridiculous. Protein is simply amino acids. Some stories online claim that melamine can "trick" a NIR(near infra-red) spectrometer into reading the nitrogen as protein. I find that hard to believe as well. Spectrometers are extremely accurate. In addition, melamine would be an expensive alternative to cheap protein sources such as chicken feathers.

I have two personal theories that I've been waiting to see any other chemists or officials mention. IF melamine is the true culprit.

ONE: Melamine is known to migrate to food when heated. This is why plates and cups made of melamine cannot be used in a microwave. Here is an abstract from a study done in Britain several years ago which demonstrated just how strongly this occurs:

...migration of melamine and formaldehyde, monomers used in the production of melamine-ware food contact articles, has been determined from 50 retail articles purchased in the UK. The food simulant 3% aqueous acetic acid was used as this is the most aggressive simulant towards melamine plastics. The test conditions used were repeated exposure to the simulant for 2 hours at 70°C, since the articles were all intended for general use including contact with hot foods and beverages. Melamine migrated from 43 of the 50 samples tested and formaldehyde migrated from all 50 samples.

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16897306

In addition, melamine, when heated causes the loss of nitrogen, leaving behind guanidine, a pharmaceutical product used as a muscle stimulant and ammonia which is toxic.

It may be possible that cargo containers or holding facilities used for wheat or rice were made of melamine and became overheated.

In addition, there is a German chemical company called Degussa that makes a cement product called Melment. The brand name MELMENT® combines melamin resin, glues and adhesives, and cement to form a concrete product. Again: a storage facility may be leaching melamine.

TWO: Melamine and cyanamide are related. Cyanamide is used in everything from fertilizer to pesticide. Both of which could be sources of contamination if used on crops.
*steps off soapbox and joins the grasping for straws club* otherwise known as
G.F.S.C -- Good For-nothing Scientists Club

[mouseinamilkbottle]

Thanks for that, Arkangel.
That makes a lot more sense.

[Arkangel]

Nothing is making sense to me anymore. I just cannot wrap my head around how this is happening and why it is continuing to happen. A month ago it was contaminated wheat gluten. Sunday- rice protein:

"Sunday, April 15, Wilbur-Ellis notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that a single bag in a recent shipment of rice protein concentrate from its Chinese supplier, Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd., had tested positive for melamine. Unlike the other white-colored bags in that shipment, the bag in question was pink and had the word 'melamine' stenciled upon it."

Do you think...just maybe... the pink bag with the word "melamine" on it was a clue? The more I read the angrier I get. The whole situation would be a ridiculous farce, if it weren't so tragic.

Oh, and by the way for those who are keeping track....they are now suspecting corn is contaminated. South Africa is the first to find it. http://w[url]ww.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2101493,00.html
[/url]
There is a pattern emerging, and I find it hard to believe that it is limited to pet food and animal feed markets. Wheat gluten, corn gluten and rice protein concentrate are all used to supplement the protein content of both animal and human food, and all three have now been found to be contaminated with melamine. Three different Chinese manufactures have been implicated.

It is either a result of intentional contamination, or massive, industry-wide negligence or both. Chinese produced high-protein food additives are now all suspect.

The rumors and stories are flying fast and furious. Supposedly today, the FDA announced that melamine tainted pet food was found being reprocessed and fed to hogs.

Sausage and bacon anyone?

[Zach]

Holy cow, sing it Arkangel.

[Bird_Brain]

Melamine added on purpose?
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industrie ... htm?csp=34

[evil pixie]

Nice article find there... makes me so mad