Recall of Pet Foods Expanded
Posted by
Mike SimonApril 03, 2007 10:32 AMMenu Foods, which manufactures dog and cat food, issued a recall 60 million containers of wet food on March 17, citing contamination of the products. The pet food is sold under a number of store brands, including Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Safeway.
Menu Foods makes pet food for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers, and is also a contract manufacturer for branded pet food companies, including Procter & Gamble Co., which sells the Menu Foods products under the names Eukanuba and Iams.
Proctor & Gamble has likewise issued a recall of all products bearing the code dates of 6339 through 7073 followed by the plant code 4197.
The recalled brands are listed on Menu Foods' website or at the Food and Drug Administration's website.
The FDA has indicated that the contaminated pet food contained melamine, a chemical used to make plastic cutlery and as a fertilizer. The melamine may have entered the pet food through wheat gluten incorporated into the food that was shipped from China, where melamine is used as a fertilizer.
The recall initially affected only the "cuts" and "gravy" food varieties, which are "wet" foods, but has now been expanded to include one dry cat food brand - Prescription Diet m/d Feline, made by Hills Pet Nutrition.
An unknown number of pets have died from kidney failure as a result of ingesting the contaminated food.