Posted on 04/27/2007 6:50:19 PM PDT by mom4kittys
WASHINGTON - Federal agents searched facilities of a dog and cat food manufacturer and one of its suppliers as part of an investigation into the widening recall of pet products, the companies disclosed Friday.
Food and Drug Administration officials searched an Emporia, Kan., pet food plant operated by Menu Foods and the Las Vegas offices of ChemNutra Inc., according to the companies.
Menu Foods made many of the more than 100 brands of pet food recalled since March 16 because of contamination by the chemical melamine. ChemNutra supplied the manufacturer with wheat gluten, one of the two ingredients tainted by melamine used in recalled pet products. Both companies said they were cooperating with the investigation.
Menu Foods also said the U.S. Attorney's offices in Kansas and the western district of Missouri have targeted the company as part of misdemeanor investigations into whether it violated the federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act. The sale of adulterated food is a misdemeanor.
The FDA also is looking at all other ingredients imported by ChemNutra, and trying to reconcile what it imported with what it supplied to customers, said agency spokeswoman Julie Zawisza.
Import records obtained by The Associated Press show that since May 2006 alone ChemNutra also imported 440,000 pounds of the second suspect pet food ingredient, rice protein concentrate, from the same Chinese trading agent that handled exports of the tainted wheat gluten.
It's unknown if ChemNutra's rice protein concentrate was contaminated. Limited testing suggests it wasn't. However, another company's imports of that same ingredient, albeit from a different source, have been found to be tainted.
Ten of the 11 containers of rice protein concentrate imported by ChemNutra over the last year went to undisclosed pet food companies, spokesman Steve Stern said. The 11th is under quarantine and being tested. But just one of the other 10 is known to have been tested; results from those tests, done last week, showed it was not contaminated, Stern said.
The origin within China of the wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate remains murky. For example, ChemNutra's source for the two vegetable proteins, Suzhou Textile Import and Export Co., told The AP that food ingredients aren't part of its business — but that employees often take on side deals. Stern said ChemNutra dealt with the company's president.
The FDA has blocked wheat gluten imports from a second Chinese company, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. That company has told AP it bought the ingredient from other undisclosed firms and then sold it to Suzhou Textile.
Meanwhile, rice protein concentrate imported by the second company, Wilbur-Ellis Co., has tested positive for melamine. It came from a different Chinese source, Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd.
Last week, the FDA blocked rice protein concentrates from that source. And on Friday, American Nutrition Inc. became the final of five pet food companies that Wilbur-Ellis supplied with the tainted ingredient to recall a variety of products.
An unknown number of dogs and cats have been sickened or died after eating chemical-laced pet food.
Menu Foods said it faces more than 50 lawsuits. It in turn has sued ChemNutra.
___
Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen in Shanghai, China, contributed to this report.
On the Net:
Food and Drug Administration on pet food recall: http://tinyurl.com/2bjasu
“Wouldn’t it be better for our economy if we supported our local farmers and fishermen? I don’t understand.”
It depends on what you mean by “our”.
It would be better for the farmers and fishermen here, of course, and better for the economies of those states that are full of them.
For me, down here on Wall Street, it would not nearly be as good if the companies traded here could not buy cheap goods in China and sell them high here. This maximizes their profits, which maximizes shareholder values, which buoys the stock market, which hires the services of people like me. So, clearly, from the perspective of a financier or a capital markets lawyer, it’s better for US to get as much cheap out of China as possible.
Which “our economy”, then, employing American farmers or putting them out of business for cheaper Chinese labor and goods is good for, depends mainly on who “US” is.
Most conservatives think that what’s good for Big Business and its CEOs and Wall Street and the capital class is ultimately better for America, because you don’t get a job from a poor guy like a farmer or a fisherman or somebody who works with his hands or works in an office somewhere. You get a job from a rich guy. Therefore, what is good for the rich guy is considered, by conservatives, to be on balance better for “our” economy.
You will be very pleased to discover that we rich guys down here on Wall Street absolutely agree. We are the engine that runs the whole economy of the nation. Therefore, whatever makes us richer eventually trickles down and benefits everybody else. So, nothing can be allowed to stand in our way as we seek to maximize corporate profits for our shareholders, and benefits packages for the executives of the corporations we serve. That is what capitalism is about, after all. It’s not about growing food and making crap. That’s what Chinese are for. It’s about maximizing economic return. Free trade maximizes economic return. Too bad for the farmers, but Xin Xuan Ju gets a job out of it, so somebody is doing well, anyway.
Clinton was the man who granted Most Favored Nation status to China and opened the trade gates. But George Bush has strongly favored trade with China too.
The unions oppose free trade with China, because it costs us a lot of jobs. But evidently big business paid clinton more than the unions did, because they saw an opportunity for big profits.
The same with Bush. A lot of big donors like the idea. Walmart is usually the one most often mentioned, but virtually everyone buys from China across the board because they can make more money that way.
The FDA sometimes plays politics, too. While clinton was president they basically gave Tyson a free pass and never inspected his plants. With China, they presumably don’t want the whole thing to blow up in their faces, but also they don’t want to bite the hands that feed them. So they caught some bad shipments, but probably are not eager to shut trade with China down, even though it is clearly dangerous.
When something like this pops up, they need to find a scapegoat, and no doubt ChemNutra and that Chinese company will be the fall guys. Then they will wait for the scandal to die down and go back to business as usual, unless someone really holds their feet to the fire.
So, I guess you can say that both parties have supported trade with China. The Dems are split because the unions are not too happy about it; and the Republicans are split because conservatives don’t trust the Chinese Communists. But the money people on both sides favor it.
Interesting note in this story. If the company says it does not export food products but maybe an employee did it on his own...and the importing company says they dealt with the president...guess who was selling on the side?
The number of firms...additional pet food recalls...and now including rice protein means this is just a TIME BOMB!
Lots of frozen veggies are from places like Uraquay, Mexico, etc......wonder what we’ll do when all the farming is done overseas.....
Wow, you made your point very well—now I understand. I’m going to have to chew on that for a while. It just feels “wrong” at first glance. I’m not sure I can shake that feeling. I don’t trust the Chinese at all either.
see my post #25. I think I understand how all this works, but it still feels “wrong” to me.
And in other news:
USDA RAISES AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS FORECAST TO RECORD $78 BILLION FOR 2007
I hope that the point you got out of what I said was that this is PRECISELY how the money men think of it, that conservatives are mostly on the side of the moneymen, and that by following their leadership on trade we are killing the farms, killing the industrial sector and shipping everything to China. And what we’re buying back from China is now killing our pets. But oh well, pets don’t give anybody jobs, and replacing them is good for the pet breeding industry. Can’t let anything get in the way of moneymen making money, because that is the REASON we have a capitalist system, doncha know? And unregulated capitalism is best. Ronald Reagan said so, so you know it must be true.
Oh, I think we should just cook it up, and send it back to them.
Good news for agribusiness!
But explain to me again why WE are importing FOOD from CHINA? I didn’t quite get that part.
“whether any of this stuff got into the human food chain.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1824386/posts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070424/hl_nm/petfood_testing_dc
So when are they going to start looking at human food? Can you imagine the reaction when they find it’s contaminated the human food supply? Kinda makes you wonder if they’re keeping a lid on that.
I hear you! There’s got to be a point where “money” is not the entire picture! Our health (and our pets) is at stake. The chinese will also do things as cheaply as possible and have no conscience for the standards of product they put out. We just buy it hook line and sinker.
Our human food is already at issue! Alabama has banned chinese seafood after finding illegal antibiotics in them. Some of this tainted pet food got fed to hogs and chickens that were destined for consumption.
I think it has entered the human food chain. I heard that they have quarantined pigs somewhere, because they were feeding them this crap. Sorry no link, I heard it on the radio.
“So when are they going to start looking at human food?”
Click on post 32, it is in the human food chain.
Post 32, it is in pigs and chickens.
I vote for banning it!
I’m not thinking just through animals, like pigs. I’m thinking flour, rice flour, cornstarch, other grain products that we eat by the ton. We have such a carbohydrate rich diet. Cereal, crackers, baked goods, instant pasta and rice dinner entrees, gravy, soups,...
I’m thinking direct consumption like with the pet food.
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