More Cat Food Recalled; U.S. Warns Retailers
to Pull Products
By
Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
(HealthDay
News) -- A Canadian pet food
manufacturer widened its recall of contaminated
pet food one more time as U.S. health
officials warned consumers Thursday that
some of the recalled products may still
be on store shelves.
Menu
Foods, of Streetsville, Ontario, has now
added a variety of canned cat food made
at its home plant to what appears to have
become the largest pet food recall in
U.S. history.
The
company, in a statement late Tuesday,
said it had pulled the latest products
after finding that contaminated wheat
gluten, used to make pet food gravy, had
been shipped to one of its Canadian plants.
Up
until that point, the recall of millions
of cans and pouches of moist tainted food
had involved more than 100 brand names
made only at the company's Kansas and
New Jersey plants.
But
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
found traces of the contaminant, the chemical
melamine, in sample tests at the company's
Streetsville plant on Tuesday. And, the
agency said in a prepared statement, Menu
Foods informed FDA officials that "it
had shipped some of the wheat gluten from
its Emporia, Kansas plant to its plant
in Streetsville."
The
FDA, meanwhile, is urging U.S. retailers
to remove all products associated with
the pet food recall, which began March
16.
The
agency said it had conducted approximately
400 checks of retail stores across the
country and "believes most companies
have removed the recalled product; however,
some have not."
"FDA's
priority is to make sure that cats and
dogs have safe food to eat," said
Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's
Center for Veterinary Medicine. "Many
of us are pet owners and animal lovers,
and we want pet owners to feel assured
that we are doing everything we can to
make sure that all contaminated food is
off the shelves."
The
new varieties of cat food in the recall
include selected products under the brand
names: Nutro, Pet Pride, America's Choice,
Winn Dixie, Publix and Price Chopper.
A full list of all the recalled products
is available on the FDA
Web site. The list will be
updated with any new recall information
when announced, the FDA said.
The
nationwide recall was based on the finding
that melamine, a chemical used to make
plastics, wound up in the pet food and
in the wheat gluten imported from China
that was used in the food. The recall
initially covered manufacture dates from
December through early March, but last
week Menu Foods expanded the manufacture
time back to November.
Also
last week, Sundlof said the FDA still
had no idea how many pets have died or
become sick from the recalled food, beyond
the 16 confirmed deaths so far.
"We
know that there are a lot more animals
that have been affected by this -- made
ill and died -- but trying to put an estimate
to it at this time is just not something
we can do," Sundlof told reporters
at the time.
To
date, the FDA has received more than 12,000
calls to its consumer complaint line --
a record number, he added.
But
on Monday, a large veterinary chain reported
that there was a 30 percent increase in
kidney failure among cats during the three
months the contaminated food was sold
before the recall, the Associated Press
reported.
Banfield,
The Pet Hospital, a large veterinary hospital
chain, said that data from more than 615
of its clinics showed that three out of
every 10,000 cats and dogs seen at the
clinics developed kidney disease during
that time.