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Fish Were Fed Contaminated Feed; Recalls Expanded

Melamine Was Actually in Wheat Flour, Not Gluten

By Lisa Wade McCormick
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 9, 2007

• RECALL LIST • Consumer Complaints --- News • Mars Petcare Recalls Some Pedigree Dog Food • Expert Finds Unexplained Pet Deaths 'Not Consistent' • Illness, Death Dog Nutro Pet Food • Feds Raid PETCO Warehouse in Illinois • Pet Owners Not Thrilled with Poison Food Settlement • CDC Links 2006 Salmonella Outbreak to Dog Food • FDA Orders Illinois Pet Food Maker to Clean Up Its Act • String of Illnesses Afflicts NUTRO-Fed Pets • Pet Owners Not Thrilled with Poisoning Settlement • Menu Foods Settles Pet Food Class Action • Many Pet Foods Still Missing From Store Shelves • Pet Owners Cheer Indictments in Toxic Pet Food Case • Indictments in Toxic Pet Food Case • Diamond Pet Foods Agrees To $3.1 Million Settlement • Tests Find More Toxic Pet Toys • Finding Safe Toys to Give Your Pet • China Agrees to Stepped-Up Food, Drug Inspections • Menu Foods Denies Acetaminophen Found in its Cat Food • Veterinarians Solve Pet Food Death Puzzle • Menu Foods Agrees to Test for Pain Killer in its Cat Food • Lab Tests Again Find Acetaminophen in Pet Food • Toxic Pet Toys: A Doctor's Advice • Consumers Respond to Toxic Wal-Mart Pet Toy Stories • Federal Import Safety Panel Outlines Proposals • Pet Industry Agrees on Need for Toxicity Standards • Industry Responds to Reports of Lead in Wal-Mart Pet Toys • Wal-Mart Attacks Lab Tests that Found Lead, Chromium in Pet Toys • Wal-Mart Reviewing Results of Tests on China-Made Pet Toys • Lab Tests Find Lead, Other Toxins in Pet Toys Sold at Wal-Mart • CANIDAE Denies Reports of Painkiller in its Pet Food • Lab Tests Find Painkiller in Samples of Pet Food • Purina Denies Claim on Bichon Frise Deaths • FDA Blocks Nutro Pet Food Shipment from Entering U.S. • FDA Testing Dog Treats Pulled from Wal-Mart Shelves • Wal-Mart Finds Melamine in Chinese-Made Dog Treats --- • More about Pet Food Recalls ...

First it was dogs and cats.

Then pigs.

Then chickens.

And now the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirms an undisclosed number of fish consumed feed tainted with the same chemical that triggered one of the largest pet food recalls in U.S. history.

The FDA, however, said the level of melamine contamination does not pose any health threat to humans who might eat the fish, according to various media reports. FDA officials also said they did not know if any of these fish have entered the human food supply.

The contaminated fish feed -- made with a wheat ingredient imported from China -- came from a Canadian company called Westaqua, officials said.

Health officials are now investigating other U.S. aquaculture farms that used the contaminated feed. Farmed fish are usually sold for direct consumption or to stock lakes and streams.

The FDA said it would test samples of the fish for melamine, a chemical used in plastics and pesticides. Melamine, however, is not approved for use in pet or human food.

The presence of melamine and melamine-related compounds in the imported wheat and rice ingredients used to make pet food triggered a massive recall of more than 60 million containers of dog and cat food.

Since March, 18 companies have recalled more than 5, 600 pet food products.

Thousands of dogs and cats that have eaten the tainted pet food have suffered kidney disease or died. The FDA said it has received reports of 4,100 deaths of cats and dogs linked to the tainted food. The Pet Connection Web site has received unconfirmed reports of 4,633 pets -- 2,499 cats and 2,301 dogs – that have died from the contaminated food.

It also said the total number of pets affected by the tainted food is 14, 553.

Other Animals Affected

But dogs and cats aren’t the only animals affected by the contaminated food.

Federal officials have confirmed that some 20 million chickens and thousands of pigs also received feed tainted with melamine. And thousands of those animals have entered the human food supply.

The FDA, however, said the risk to humans who eat meat from these animals is minimal.

It Wasn't Gluten

In related news, the FDA revealed the two ingredients believed to be the source of the melamine-contamination were mislabeled when they entered the U.S. from China.

Those ingredients -- wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate – are really wheat flour.

“What we discovered is these are not wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate but in fact are wheat flour contaminated by melamine,” David Acheson, the FDA’s assistant commissioner for food protection, told reporters.

Acheson said the FDA is considering enforcement options.

Two companies -- Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. and Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd. — exported the ingredients from China.

The Chinese government recently disclosed that Xuzhou Anying did not declare the contaminated wheat ingredients as a raw material for feed or food. Instead, it listed them as a non-food product, which meant they were not subject to mandatory inspection by China.

Chinese authorities have since detained the general manager of Xuzhou Anying, Mao Lijun.

Other Developments

In related pet food recall news:

• A second company that received rice protein imported from China has recalled the product. The Cereal Byproducts company announced earlier this week that the FDA found melamine and melamine-related derivates in the rice protein imported from Chinese supplier, Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd.

In a written statement, Cereal Byproducts said it shipped the tainted ingredient to three customers in the Midwest between July 19, 2006 and March 14, 2007. The company, however, said only two companies recalled the contaminated products around April 19, 2007. The FDA said more pet foods could be recalled in the wake of this action by Cereal Byproducts. The company said it has not received any confirmed reports of pet deaths linked to the tainted ingredient.

“We are confident that our customers have implemented on-going recalls and the remaining rice protein concentrate, not previously distributed to these customers, is located at a separate warehouse facility under quarantine,” the company said in a written statement;

• Pet food manufacturer Royal Canin family has announced it will no longer use vegetable proteins --like wheat gluten, corn gluten, and rice protein concentrate -- from China. The company also said it will start screening for melamine and melamine-related derivatives during its standard testing protocols.

In addition, the company offered to cover the costs of medical screenings for pets that have eaten any of the affected Royal Canin USA products;

• South Africa's Pet Food Industry Association (PFI) has advised pet food makers not to buy Chinese ingredients for use in their products. At least 25 dogs in South Africa have recently died after eating pet food made with tainted corn gluten imported from China. Tests revealed the corn gluten was contaminated with melamine and cyanuric acid. South Africa’s PFI is also encouraging pet food companies to test their ingredients for melamine.

Other Concerns

Meanwhile, it’s not just vegetable proteins from China that concern U.S. health officials.

The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries recently banned imported catfish from China. That action came after tests on samples of catfish tested positive for an antibiotic prohibited for use in the United States.

The state tested 20 samples of catfish. Of those samples, 14 tested positive for the antibiotic fluoroquinolones, which the FDA banned from use in food-producing animals in 1997.

“We are sending notice today that we are not going to continue to sit by and let these foreign countries produce their food at a different standard than we ask our farmers to produce by and then send those products in here at a cheaper price," Alabama’s Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks told reporters.

The Agriculture Department also tested 13 samples of basa fish from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. Five of those samples tested positive for antibiotics. Those five samples came from Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

The state’s food safety director told reporters the presence of antibiotics in these fish in not accidental. He said they’re used to kill bacteria in the water.

More about the Pet Food Recall ...

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