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Pet-Food Recall: Timing and Triggers (Iams Blew the Whistle!)
Pet Connection Blog ^ | Thursday April 26, 2007 | Milwaukee_Guy

Posted on 04/26/2007 10:08:18 AM PDT by Milwaukee_Guy

In Tuesday’s four-hour session of live-blogging the food-safety hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives – work from which her wrists have yet to recover – Christie found herself typing something we at the PetConnection first heard weeks ago, but couldn’t get confirmation on until it came up in the hearing:

Without Iams, there might not have been a recall at all.

In sworn testimony, Menu Foods CEO Paul Henderson admitted that his company called the recall because Iams told them they’d had enough, that their own quality internal systems had revealed a problem, and that they were pulling their own products even if Menu wouldn’t pull them all.

It was that stand that triggered everything that has followed since. Menu launched the massive and unprecedented recall before Iams could, but only because Iams was ready to do it on their own. Here’s the transcript:

(Excerpt) Read more at petconnection.com ...


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: china; doggieping; foodsupply; iams; melamine; melanite; menufoods; petfood; petfoodrecall; recall
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Outstanding summary by Pet Connection detailing how Iams did what it's suppliers and the FDA would not do.

Note that Menu Foods had a 50% mortality rate (i.e. dead test animals) from their own internal live pet food tasting, and -sat- on the info until Iams advised they were going public.

IMHO Iams and other food producers should now be convinced that Chinese imports are bad for their bottom line.

Over three thousand dead cats and dogs from this debacle and in a week or two we will be reading about contamination in the human food supply.

Stay tuned!

1 posted on 04/26/2007 10:08:22 AM PDT by Milwaukee_Guy
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To: All

Transcript from the Senate Hearing,

STUPAK: “I was surprised by your answer this morning, Mr. Henderson. If you take a look at the record and the timeline, March 15th was your first recall for all wheat gluten manufactured between Dec 3rd, 2006 to March 6th. March 24th was your second recall; you expanded to include additional dates. On April 5th, you had your third recall. On April 10th you had your fourth recall. So an immediate recall authority by the FDA would not have taken a month for you to recall your products. Correct?”

HENDERSON: “I would have to say that’s incorrect. The information that you’re looking on, the recall that took place relative to the date of March 16th, Menu Foods at that point in time did not know what the problem was.”

STUPAK: “Well, I’m not asking about the problem. My question was a recall, should, should we give the FDA the right to an immediate authority, and would it have made any difference. You said you didn’t think it would make any difference in this case, and yet the recall went on for about a month. I think an immediate recall authority for the FDA would have made a difference here.”

HENDERSON: “The, the recall that was initiated by Menu Foods and the, essentially as a result of following conversations with the FDA, we identified, this was the scope we’re proposing to do. Whether or not they might have come up with a different scope, that’s a valid point. They might have come up and said, recall more, or recall less.”

STUPAK: “But even before you - I don’t mean to be argumentative, here - even before you, at Menu Foods, and the FDA decided to recall, Iams had already told you they would no longer accept your product, and they were going to recall all food manufactured by Menu Food in, at the KS plant, right? So, really, IAMS was the first one to really start it, the ball rolling here that something was wrong. And I guess maybe what we’re getting at here is there’s also a corporate responsibility, instead of waiting for the FDA. If Iams, the pet food manufacturer sees a problem, and they’re recalling it, I would have hoped that the corporations would have done it without FDA authority. But even WITH FDA authority, if we could grant that to them, I think we could have maybe limited the scope of the harm caused throughout
our country.”

HENDERSON: “Well, again, relative to the facts as they actually transpired, the conversation that took place with Iams, they, they essentially shared some information with us. We got together the next day, and essentially in a, in a rather lengthy meeting, both parties exchanged what they knew. Being that individually there wasn’t enough information to, to draw conclusions. But together, it looked as from a circumstantial evidence perspective, as if we had the basis for a recall. They opted to recall, we went along. We announced first.”

STUPAK: “Iams sees the need for a recall, but almost two weeks before that, your own taste testing lab out of 20 animals, three died and six were dead That’s almost 50 percent; I would that would cause Menu Foods to be concerned and talk about a recall, or what’s going on here quicker, than wait until Iams forces the issue, and then the FDA, and on and on.”

Iams has now confirmed that account with us: That they would have launched their own recall if Menu hadn’t.


2 posted on 04/26/2007 10:09:14 AM PDT by Milwaukee_Guy (Don't hit them between the eyes. Hit them right -in- the eyes!)
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To: Arizona Carolyn

Ping!......


3 posted on 04/26/2007 10:10:21 AM PDT by Red Badger (My gerund got caught in my diphthong, and now I have a dangling participle...............)
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To: Arizona Carolyn; mom4kittys; blam; Salamander; Red Badger; upchuck; WakeUpAndVote; dirtboy; ...

Ping!


4 posted on 04/26/2007 10:10:27 AM PDT by Milwaukee_Guy (Don't hit them between the eyes. Hit them right -in- the eyes!)
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To: mom4kittys

Meow!....


5 posted on 04/26/2007 10:11:21 AM PDT by Red Badger (My gerund got caught in my diphthong, and now I have a dangling participle...............)
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To: mom4kittys; Calpernia; HairOfTheDog

Thank you for posting this Milwaukee_Guy.


6 posted on 04/26/2007 10:14:07 AM PDT by girlangler (Fish Fear Me)
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To: Milwaukee_Guy

Good for Iams.

I was surprised that a single company made a producdts for 100s of brands.

I thought General Mills was bad......


7 posted on 04/26/2007 10:16:36 AM PDT by ASOC (Yeah, well, maybe - but can you *prove* it?)
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To: Milwaukee_Guy

“IMHO Iams and other food producers should now be convinced that Chinese imports are bad for their bottom line. “

We truck soybeans into Doane’s petfood plant. It is the cleanest strictest facility around. (Drivers have to wear proctective clothing, suits, booties, etc.)

(You should see Cargill’s facilities and they produce foods for people.!!)

I was incredulous at this incident.


8 posted on 04/26/2007 10:16:42 AM PDT by griswold3 (Don't 'Bob Dole' me in 2008!!)
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To: Milwaukee_Guy

FDA is useless, and we still haven’t properly addressed the problem of this cr*p in HUMAN food.


9 posted on 04/26/2007 10:17:14 AM PDT by MizSterious (Anonymous sources often means "the voices in my head told me.")
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To: Milwaukee_Guy

I’ve gone to entirely gluten-free pet food.. And I hope my human food is as well, but who knows these days.


10 posted on 04/26/2007 10:17:24 AM PDT by Tolsti
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To: All
Iams should be commended for taking decisive action.

I’ve been in manufacturing my entire life and realize that “stuff happens”.

What is important is, that a mistake or defect is quickly identified and corrected.

Anything else is spin, unethical and in this entire China Import Debacle, a criminal matter.

11 posted on 04/26/2007 10:20:55 AM PDT by Milwaukee_Guy (Don't hit them between the eyes. Hit them right -in- the eyes!)
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To: Tolsti

Unfortunately we have to worry about corn and rice as well. Not to mention other possibly tainted ingredients that have not made themselve known yet.


12 posted on 04/26/2007 10:22:45 AM PDT by mom4kittys (If velvet could sing, it would sound like Josh Groban)
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To: Milwaukee_Guy

Thanks for posting.


13 posted on 04/26/2007 10:22:58 AM PDT by e_castillo (We should fear the Environmentalist Inquisition...)
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To: e_castillo

I read in the newspaper that it was 39,000 not 3,000 that had died up until then. Also, when you consider many people wouldn’t even take their pets to a vet after they died it was a lot more than that.


14 posted on 04/26/2007 10:26:15 AM PDT by Cowgirl
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To: Slings and Arrows; Jeff Head; pissant; dirtboy; WFTR; WalterSkinner; AuntB; Kevmo; calex59; ...

More on the China/FDA/Pet Food Recall debacle.

Kudos to IAMs.


15 posted on 04/26/2007 10:27:09 AM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007 (Why vote for Duncan Hunter in 2008? Look at my profile.)
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To: Milwaukee_Guy

Iams and Eukanuba are the same.
Kudos to them. That is what my pup has and will continue to eat.


16 posted on 04/26/2007 10:27:14 AM PDT by netmilsmom (To attack one section of Christianity in this day and age, is to waste time.)
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To: Milwaukee_Guy

Thank you soooooo much for posting this information!! I’m passing it on to all my friends and family. BTTT!


17 posted on 04/26/2007 10:29:29 AM PDT by Chena (I want a President who will also be tough against liberalism)
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To: Milwaukee_Guy

THX


18 posted on 04/26/2007 10:30:14 AM PDT by Fawn (Achmed the Dead Terrorist--> http://youtube.com/watch?v=2QXQFTEBqNE)
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To: Milwaukee_Guy

Can’t we have a sign that shows a no-communist supply system? Cicle with x across, and hammer and sickle in the middle.

I’d think that might be a good selling point on many products.


19 posted on 04/26/2007 10:31:11 AM PDT by Tolsti
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To: Tolsti

How do you identify gluten-free petfood?
Does it say so on the package?

What’s a good brand then?
I’m getting a dog for my son in a few days, and I’d like to keep the animal healthy.


20 posted on 04/26/2007 10:33:06 AM PDT by Redbob
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