Menu Foods says its pet food is now safe

[Dover]

Source: Reuters

TORONTO (Reuters) - Menu Foods Income Fund (MEW_u.TO: Quote), maker of the tainted pet foods at the center of this month's massive recall, said on Friday it is no longer using a Chinese supplier of wheat gluten after U.S. officials found the chemical melamine in some of the recalled products.

Menu Foods stopped using the supplier on March 6, 10 days before the recall was announced, Paul Henderson, Menu Foods' president and chief executive, told a news conference in Toronto.

He said all pet food manufactured by his company after that date is safe.

"Let me be clear on this: we have removed the problem from our system," he said. "Our recall is well under way and products produced today are being made with known quality and tested raw materials."

"We are angered that a source outside the company has apparently adulterated the product, causing this regrettable loss," he added...>


Read more: http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2007-03-31T073803Z_01_N30224903_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-PETFOOD-MELAMINE-MENUFOODS-COL.XML&archived=False

[Dover]

1. So I guess we'll learn WHO the supplier is once the lawsuits begin...n/t

[Eurobabe]

2. Phew, now I feel better, don't you?

:sarcasm: :nuke: :sarcasm: :nuke:

[april]

3. any good recipe's for making your own dry dog food?

[woodsprite]

10. I've been reading an online book at

http://www.pet-grub.com/ all morning. I think we're going to try to move Silver and Max over to that method of feeding. I know it needs to be introduced slowly. Silver's been on Science Diet/Pedigree mix for the past year, and just Pedigree before that (before we adopted her). Poor girl has been tested for so much this week. On Monday she goes in for a water deprivation test because the tests for diabetes and Addisons came back negative. :(

[DCKit]

4. What about OUR food?

Keep repeating the mantra "Globalization is a GOOD thing".

Maybe someday we'll begin to believe it.

[OhioChick]

9. You Got It. n/t

[NYC]

20. Who is the supplier of the tainted wheat gluten?

Without knowing, how can we avoid their foods? Do they also supply people food? Or do they just poison pets?

There is no accountability when food is outsourced to a country which may not have any standards, for all we know.

[Lurking Dem]

5. Vet on tv last night

said that the two toxins so far reported don't coincide with the renal failure they have been seeing and that we have many more questions than answers regarding what happened.

So how do they know it's safe?

I call BS.

[Lint Head]

6. We just euthanized our girl.

She was a sweet natured loving dog just 8 years old. She came down with kidney failure that was discovered while doing blood work having her teeth cleaned at the vet. She has been fed Science Diet dry food her entire life. I realize it is not on the recall list but it makes me wonder. She went down hill quickly for about two weeks after going to the vet.
I think there may be a problem with dog foods in general over a period of time.

I know kidney failure can happen for many reasons. She was an indoor dog. We miss her and her little sister misses her.:dem:

[qanda]

7. So sorry about your dog

We put our dog down last year about this time and it's so hard to lose a member of the family. Hugs to you and your family.

[Justice]

8. I am so sorry - but check out this article in Globe

Meanwhile, a second manufacturer -- this time of dry cat food -- issued a recall because its Prescription Diet m/d Feline brand used wheat gluten from the same supplier that Menu Foods used. Hill's Pet Nutrition, a division of Colgate-Palmolive said the recall didn't involve any other Prescription Diet or Science Diet products.

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/03/31/fda_finds_chemical_in_pet_food/

They say only Prescription Diet cat food - but you have to wonder based on your pet's illness.

[kestrel91316]

26. Hill's has ONLY recalled the Prescription Diet food that has wheat gluten -

there is only ONE. It is M/D Feline dry.

It's "kitty Atkins diet", used in weight management and also in some diabetics.

[woodsprite]

11. I'm sorry about your loss. n/t

[Raine]

24. I'm so sorry

:hug:

[kestrel91316]

25. Chronic renal failure is really common in old dogs and cats. We

have got so many other diseases under control, I know my patients (cats) don't have much else to go wrong with them. The kidneys just eventually wear out.

They are known to wear out much quicker, BTW, if the animal has had TOO MUCH PROTEIN in its diet over the years, and particularly too much low-biologic-value protein, which makes for too much nitrogenous waste having to be removed from the blood by the kidneys. They get overworked and it shortens their lives

Egg, milk, turkey, chicken = higher biologic value protein
Fish is intermediate, IIRC
Pork, beef, lamb,all plant proteins (except soy?) = lower biologic value protein

I always prefer that my patients eat foods that contain high biologic value proteins wherever possible, FWIW.

[DCKit]

12. Snagged this from MsFlorida's post

WAS THE TAINTED WHEAT GLUTEN ENZYMATICALLY MODIFIED? 03/30/07 (http://www.howl911.com )

A visitor to Howl 911 submitted the following two links to a couple of intriguing articles; one, on the enzymatic modification of wheat gluten with transglutaminase by Chinese food researchers and, two, a U.K.-based research paper citing a link between transglutaminase and renal insufficiency (kidney failure). While intriguing, little can be extrapolated from this information without making certain assumptions, as the enzyme used in modifying the wheat gluten is microbial in origin, while the enzyme used in the cited in vivo research was tissue transglutaminase. And even if the microbial transglutaminase possesses the same cross-linking potential as is credited to the tissue transglutaminase (which is certainly within the realm of possiblity), there would have to be sufficient transglutaminase left as a contaminant in the enzymatically-treated wheat gluten to be of any concern. But because the FDA's most recent speculation (melamine contaminating the wheat gluten from China) has only served to create yet more doubt, Howl 911 has chosen to include the following articles on this website.

Enzymatic modification to boost wheat gluten gelling: 11/27/2006 - Modifying wheat gluten protein with transglutaminase enzymes improves the gelling, rheological and textural properties, claim Chinese researchers - a result that may offer value-added solutions for a wide range of food products ... Some modified wheat gluten is already available to food formulators, like, for example, Tate & Lyle's Meripro 410 and 420 launched earlier this year. The former is designed to bring functional benefits as an emulsifier and dough plasticiser, while the latter is said to have emulsifying and foaming properties well suited for desserts and confectionery.

The Role of Transglutaminase in the Rat Subtotal Nephrectomy Model of Renal Fibrosis This observed association between tissue transglutaminase ... rats demonstrated a steady increase in proteinuria and serum creatinine with time ... indicating progressive renal insufficiency ... and renal tubulointerstitial scarring in rats submitted to SNx suggests that tissue transglutaminase may play an important role in the development of experimental renal fibrosis and the associated loss of tubule integrity

[tiptoe]

13. David Letterman will be relieved.

He's often eaten pet food out of the can...on his show! (been doing it for years...to the collective groan of the audiences every time)

[RedCappedBandit]

14. Menu Foods stopped using their supplier..

and i'm sure we've all stopped using Menu Foods. Oh well.



"Let me be clear on this: we have removed the problem from our system," he said. "Our recall is well under way and products produced today are being made with known quality and tested raw materials."

Yeah, and i'm sure they claimed to be using quality materials before the recall.

[tiptoe]

15. Was the supplier ever identified?

[RedCappedBandit]

16. Not that i'm aware of

So how do we even know if they're actually using a different one?

[tiptoe]

17. Figures: Businesses delivered "Mad Cow" beef weren't identified either...*Co USDA policy. (Same USDA

had prevented beef suppliers from testing their own cattle for the disease for years...only recently court over-ruled)

Pro-Business at the expense of...life. Stanley Prusiner testifies about difficulty of reaching Ann Venemon, USDA Sec

[kestrel91316]

27. Not publically. But the FDA knows exactly who it is, and has informed

everyone else they supplied with bad product. Which is why the recalls of M/D and Alpo yesterday. Hill's and Purina acted immediately when they were told, from eveything I've seen.

[Liberal Veteran]

18. Truth to tell, they'll probably be the safest on the market for a while.

A company that is now fighting for it's survival with an incredibly huge public black eye over this is hardly going to drop their guard and let it happen again any time soon.

I am not suggesting you use their brands of pet foods, but something this damaging to their company profile is most likely to make them take some pretty extreme measures to ensure something like this doesn't happen again, because they may survive a single bad blow, but if it happens again, they might as well shutter their factories once and for all.

[MLFerrell]

19. And Bush says that we are winning in Iraq...

Fool me once... Shame on- Fool me, you can't get fooled again.

Our awesome Presnit Boosh sayed so, that gotta be it!

[Critters2]

21. Whew! There's a load off!

As if I would ever knowingly buy their shit again.

[Raine]

22. Sure I believe them

as much as I believe what comes out of chimp's mouth! :mad:

[kestrel91316]

23. Can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Generics are still generics.