Currently, any pet food manufacturer who used rice protein imported by Wilbur-Ellis has pulled there products from the market. Now there is another, yet unidentified, importer who was moving contaminated Chinese rice protein into the United States:
A second company likely imported rice protein from China that was contaminated with a chemical linked to a major pet food recall, two U.S. senators said on Monday.
Rice protein tainted with the chemical melamine was used in pet foods from at least five manufacturers who obtained the protein from one supplier, U.S. officials have said. It also made its way into feed used at a California hog farm.
Now, another company is suspected of importing rice protein from China, Democratic Sens. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Maria Cantwell of Washington said in a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
"We have learned that in addition to Wilbur-Ellis, a second United States company imported a shipment of rice protein from China that is also likely to be contaminated with melamine," the senators wrote. "We request the FDA identify this second importer as well as those manufacturers to which it may have sold the contaminated product."
This will be more grist for the mill when it comes to the lawsuits. If there are still brands of pet food on store shelves at this late date that ought to have been recalled, the financial losses will likely skyrocket. New pet food lawsuits are being filed even now:
A frantic Burdetta McClaran whipped up a home-cooked meal in her kitchen to try to get her beloved Yorkshire terrier to eat.
But the 81-year-old McClaran watched helplessly as Tyke withered away, eventually dying from the poison in her favorite brand of pet food, she says.
Those are the claims in a second lawsuit filed in LaPorte County against Menu Food Midwest Corp., the maker of several brands of pet food recalled from store shelves across the country.
"I did everything. I couldn't help her at all," said McClaran, of LaPorte.
McClaran and her 53-year-old son, Wayne McClaran, are plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Thursday in LaPorte Circuit Court by attorney James Macalka.
Meanwhile, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a powerful lobbying group that pushes for better eating habits and strict labelling (and is criticized by many as being the self-appointed food police promoting a nanny state over individual freedom), is dropping the trade bomb -- the CSPI is advocating that grain imports from China be blocked:
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should ban imports of wheat gluten, rice protein, and other grain products from China until the agency can certify that the products are free of chemical or microbial contamination, urged the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). In a letter to FDA commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach, CSPI recommended that FDA should also evaluate whether a ban is needed for other foods or ingredients coming from China—the source of the contaminated gluten linked to the largest-ever recall of pet food.
CSPI’s letter comes in the wake of troubling new disclosures that China has denied entry to FDA inspectors investigating the pet food recall. Melamine, the suspected toxin in the pet food, was also recently detected by California authorities in the urine of hogs fed contaminated feed—a development that suggests that the problem could reach the human food supply.
“If U.S. pets must serve as the ‘puppies in the coal mine,’ we urge FDA to heed the warning and take action now to ban grains and other grain products until the Chinese government and producers can guarantee that these imports are free of illegal and dangerous substances,” wrote CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson and CSPI food safety director Caroline Smith DeWaal. CSPI recognizes that while closing the borders to these food imports is a serious action, it is a necessary action for FDA, given its current budget shortfall and lack of food inspectors. FDA inspection staff has actually shrunk by 15 percent since 2003.
The CSPI makes an interesting point. The regulation of food (human and pet) in the United States is covered under several different government departments:
The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition is the branch of the FDA which is responsible for ensuring the safety and accurate labeling of nearly all food products in the United States.[2] One exception is products derived from traditional domesticated animals, such as cattle and chickens, which fall under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service. Products which contain minimal amounts of meat are regulated by FDA, and the exact boundaries are listed in a memorandum of understanding between the two agencies. However, medicines and other products given to all domesticated animals are regulated by FDA through a different branch, the Center for Veterinary Medicine. Other consumables which are not regulated by the FDA include beverages containing more than 7% alcohol (regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in the U.S. Department of the Treasury), and non-bottled drinking water (regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency).
Senator Dick Urbin and Representative Rosa DeLauro are sponsoring a bill to create a single Food Safety Administration. It would cover imports as well, with a certification program requiring regular renewals by food importers:
A foreign government or foreign food establishment requesting a certification to import food to the United States shall demonstrate, in a manner determined appropriate by the Administrator, that food produced under the supervision of a foreign government or by the foreign food establishment has met standards for food safety, inspection, labeling, and consumer protection that are at least equivalent to standards applicable to food produced in the United States.
Prior to granting the certification request of a foreign food establishment, the Administrator shall certify, based on an onsite inspection, the food safety programs and procedures of a requesting foreign firm as at least equivalent to the food safety programs and procedures of the United States.
A foreign government or foreign firm approved by the Administrator to import food to the United States under this section shall be certified to export only the approved food products to the United States for a period not to exceed 5 years.
Certification could be withdrawn upon the outbreak of illness, upon determination by an investigation that standards are no longer met, or a refusal to allow an inspection. Under this proposed law, the Administrator has the power to stop imports from an entire country if the food is found to have been adulterated.
Too late for Tyke, but perhaps a good idea to eliminate the confusion and overlap in the current system.
Ochman thinks this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Check out what Canadian bloggers have written about the pet food recall
Results will open in a new window.
Check out other entries from the Pet Food Recall category
Results will open in a new window.
Check out other entries from the True Crime category
Results will open in a new window.
