U.S. agents search pet food plants

[jokieman]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070427/...et_food_recall

I'm posting the full article here because Yahoo news has a nasty habit of making it's articles disappear within a few hours of posting it sometimes. I believe the article is very relevant because the problem is coming from SEVERAL different sources in China, and IMO, we should all be writing letters to the politicians who represent our districts/states to BAN (ALL) agricultural foodstuffs coming in from China until it can gain some semblance of control over the runaway train wreck that is their agricultural industry.

This is a country who's citizens are not above selling fake milk powder to it's own people for a meager profit and making hundreds of babies sick, and killing dozens in the process. Their own people are afraid to buy off the shelf in their own supermarkets because the Chinese government has absolutely NO control over what is happening, and won't for many years to come.

We also need to petition the U.S. F.D.A. to force manufacturers to label the countries of origin for all ingredients, not only in our pet food, but in our human food too (Earlier this week a Hog Farm was also contaminated, those hogs were destined for our stomachs).

By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer
Fri Apr 27, 5:41 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Federal agents searched facilities of a dog and cat food manufacturer and one of its suppliers as part of an investigation into the widening recall of pet products, the companies disclosed Friday.

Food and Drug Administration officials searched an Emporia, Kan., pet food plant operated by Menu Foods and the Las Vegas offices of ChemNutra Inc., according to the companies.

Menu Foods made many of the more than 100 brands of pet food recalled since March 16 because of contamination by the chemical melamine. ChemNutra supplied the manufacturer with wheat gluten, one of the two ingredients tainted by melamine used in recalled pet products. Both companies said they were cooperating with the investigation.

Menu Foods also said the U.S. Attorney's offices in Kansas and the western district of Missouri have targeted the company as part of misdemeanor investigations into whether it violated the federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act. The sale of adulterated food is a misdemeanor.

The FDA also is looking at all other ingredients imported by ChemNutra, and trying to reconcile what it imported with what it supplied to customers, said agency spokeswoman Julie Zawisza.

Import records obtained by The Associated Press show that since May 2006 alone ChemNutra also imported 440,000 pounds of the second suspect pet food ingredient, rice protein concentrate, from the same Chinese trading agent that handled exports of the tainted wheat gluten.

It's unknown if ChemNutra's rice protein concentrate was contaminated. Limited testing suggests it wasn't. However, another company's imports of that same ingredient, albeit from a different source, have been found to be tainted.

Ten of the 11 containers of rice protein concentrate imported by ChemNutra over the last year went to undisclosed pet food companies, spokesman Steve Stern said. The 11th is under quarantine and being tested. But just one of the other 10 is known to have been tested; results from those tests, done last week, showed it was not contaminated, Stern said.

The origin within China of the wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate remains murky. For example, ChemNutra's source for the two vegetable proteins, Suzhou Textile Import and Export Co., told The AP that food ingredients aren't part of its business — but that employees often take on side deals. Stern said ChemNutra dealt with the company's president.

The FDA has blocked wheat gluten imports from a second Chinese company, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. That company has told AP it bought the ingredient from other undisclosed firms and then sold it to Suzhou Textile.

Meanwhile, rice protein concentrate imported by the second company, Wilbur-Ellis Co., has tested positive for melamine. It came from a different Chinese source, Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd.

Last week, the FDA blocked rice protein concentrates from that source. And on Friday, American Nutrition Inc. became the final of five pet food companies that Wilbur-Ellis supplied with the tainted ingredient to recall a variety of products.

An unknown number of dogs and cats have been sickened or died after eating chemical-laced pet food.

Menu Foods said it faces more than 50 lawsuits. It in turn has sued ChemNutra.

U.S. Customs returns over 200 shipments coming in from China every MONTH because they find chemicals/antibiotics in the food that are banned here in the U.S.A. Other countries such as Japan, South Korea, and many more have had to do the same thing. The problem is that U.S. Customs tests only a very SMALL portion of what's coming in from China. How much tainted foodstuffs that get by them is anyone's guess.

 

[starryeyedtiger]

this is all very frusterating. at this point i am learning how to home cook a natural balanced diet for my cats because i am soooo sick of all these recalls.