Menu Foods Expands Pet Food Recall List
Thursday April 5, 2007
In a press release dated today, Menu Foods has expanded its pet food recall list to include other foods prepared with wheat gluten supplied by ChemNutra, the U.S. and Canada distributor that had obtained its product from Xuzhou Anying in China. The manufacture has also extended dates of pet food products in the earlier recall all the way back to November 8, 2006. The press release goes on to say,
Suggested Reading:My Top Picks of Cat and Kitten Foods
Dry Cat Foods That Do Not Contain Wheat Gluten
List of Recalled Cat Foods Updated 4/5/07
Pet Food Recall FAQs
Pet Food Recall Index
- A total of 20 varieties in the United States and Canada have [also] been added to the recall list and the additional varieties are listed below. A further seven varieties for Europe have been added to the recall list. All Menu Foods products not made with the recalled wheat gluten are safe to consume.
Suggested Reading:
Comments
We don’t feed our cats wheat gluten anyway… it’s been the snacks that we’ve had to return. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.
Hi Franny! I so appreciate your website and updates on the pet food. I have a question and a comment. First, what do you think of the dry Royal Canin and Wet and dry Blue Buffalo cat foods? I feed these to may cats and think they are okay, but wanted your opinion as for safety these days. Also, I read an article on the internet that said up until now (pet food manufacturers) did not consider melamine toxic. I know this is an outright lie. I went to purchase melamine coated shelving at Home Depot several years ago, and they will not cut it down for you on account of the toxic melamine. They said the melamine can get into the air by sawdust and the heat from the saw and is toxic to breath. Sounds pretty toxic to me! Who in their right mind would put this in pet food. Anyway it’s a lie that melamine was considered non toxic. The company that put this in the wheat gluten was just greedy and didn’t care. It’s quite interesting that they only sold it to pet food manufacturers and not the human supply. They knew something was wrong with it.
Hi Tracy,
First, Blue Buffalo is an okay food. I don’t feed it to my cats because when I tested it for review, they spit out the “Life Source Bits” and ate the rest of the (dry) food. Since the special nutrients are in those blue bits, it didn’t make sense to continue using it. You can find my review here.
Royal Canin comes in a number of formulas. At least one contains wheat gluten, so it will not be on my list:
Chicken meal, brown rice, corn, corn gluten meal, rice, chicken fat (naturally preserved with mixed tocopherols, rosemary extract and citric acid), chicken, pea fiber, natural chicken flavor, beet pulp (sugar removed), wheat gluten,
Otherwise its list of ingredients is okay. If you are not concerned about wheat gluten in non-recalled foods, go for it.
You said: “Also, I read an article on the internet that said up until now (pet food manufacturers) did not consider melamine toxic. I know this is an outright lie.”
I do not like to rely on unsubstantiated reports. I find it very difficult to believe that any manufacturer knew prior to the recall that the wheat germ used in their foods contained malamine. Could you please post again with the URL where you found this claim? Thanks!
Franny
I have been trying to find out what companies have been using products obtained from ChemNutra in their pet food, both wet and dry, and I am having absolutely no success. According to their website, (http://www.chemnutra.com and http://www.chemnutra.com/feed.htm and http://www.chemnutra.com/food.htm, just a few links on its site) this company which imports from China, supplies many other items to pet food companies in addition to wheat gluten, such as vitamins and minerals. I hope you can help, so far I have not been able to get an answer from Iams/Eukanuba or Nestle-Purina/ProPlan either by phone or email and personally, since this company has recalled all of its wheat gluten, I just don’t want to use any products from any pet food company that have any ingredients that were supplied by ChemNutra at this time. Thank you very much.
I’ve been searching the internet trying to understand the pet food recall situation. Even with so much information on the internet, it is very confusing.
Do I have this right? - Pet food manufacturers do not deliberately use melamine as an ingredient, it is that the wheat gluten used was contaminated with melamine.
I would appreciate clarification on this situation. Thank you.
I LOST MY CAT PEPPER BEFORE CHRISTMAS AND SOME OF THE REACTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN LISTED SHE DID EXHIBIT. SHE WAS A IAMS CAT. I DID NOT GET HER TESTED FOR ANYTHING HOWEVER SHE DID HAVE THOSE SYMOPTOMS AND LOST WEIGHT AND HAD NO APPETITE. i HAVE HER DEEP IN MY HEART AND SHE WAS CREMATED.
I highly recommend Blue Buffalo Spa Select. It doesn’t contain corn, wheat or soy. There’s no by-product and it has cranberry in it for the urinary tract.
It’s been very helpful for one of my cats that has had a UTI as well as for another that has had weight issues. All of my cats love it and I feel good knowing they are eating something healthy.
Denise, you are correct — melamine is not used as an ingredient in pet foods but rather is a contaminant on the wheat gluten ingredient included in the recalled cat foods and dog foods.
Here’s a link with up-to-date information on the recall and melamine that you may find helpful:
Menu Pet Foods Recall FAQ
A+ Flint River Ranch
Sorry, here’s the correct link:
Menu Pet Foods Recall FAQ
Seems like Blue Buffalo has not been telling the truth. They are recalling their Cat Spa Select that their “co-manufacture” produces for them. The only truthful company in this whole diaster has benn Nutro.
Kevin:
If you read their press release, I think you’ll find that they have been telling the truth. No kittens have actually gotten sick from eating Blue since they pulled their product before there were any actual problems. I don’t think Nutro can say the same.
My cat has permanent kidney damage from eating Blue Buffalo Spa Select food. I am filing a claim against the manufacturer, American Nutrition, Inc. I’m interested to see if they will admit there has been an illness or if they will keep saying no cats or dogs got sick.