April 10, 2007
North Country Gazette
Menu Foods has issued yet another recall of "cuts and gravy" style pet food, its third since the Canadian company's initial announcement on March 16 that nearly 100 brands of wet pet food was contaminated, causing kidney failure in cats and dogs.
Late Tuesday, Menu Foods Income Fund voluntarily recalled additional products made with tainted wheat gluten at its Canadian plant. Menu Foods said it had undertaken an accounting of all recalled wheat gluten supplied by ChemNutra Inc. to its company in the United States. As a result of that review, they have identified a single interplant transfer of the ChemNutra supplied wheat gluten, shipped from Menu's plant in Emporia, Kansas, to its plant in Streetsville, Ontario.
The company said this wheat gluten was subsequently used in the production of pet food in December, 2006 and January, 2007, which is being recalled by Menu Foods. The labels recalled are Americas Choice, Preferred Pet, Your Pet, Pet Pride, Laura Lynn, Nutriplan, Price Chopper, Publix, Stop and Shop Companion, Winn Dixie and Nutro Products.
The new varieties in the United States and Canada have been added to the recall list. A complete list of recalled products, including the new items can be reviewed at http://www.menufoods.com
As of late Tuesday, the FDA website did not list the latest recall by Menu Foods. http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html
Menu Foods has admitted delaying the announcement of the recall for a month after first receiving complaints about pet illness from the company's food in mid-February. It has now been learned that in the month between learning of the contamination and the time that Menu made it known publicly on March 16, , the company's chief financial officer had sold nearly half of his stock in the company which had reported profits of nearly $6 million for the last quarter of 2006.
Menu's CFO Mark Wiens sold 45 percent of his stock or 14,000 shares three weeks before the March 16 product recall. While Menu's president Paul Henderson has already acknowledged that the company first began receiving complaints in mid-February, on Feb. 26 and 27, Wiens sold his stock for $102,900. The stock at current prices would be worth $62,440. He reportedly still owns 17,193 shares with the option to purchase 101,812 units.
Wiens claims that he didn't hear about the contaminated food until after the first of March, after he had sold his stock.
Henderson said that Menu Foods had stopped doing business with its Chinese supplier of wheat gluten on March 6 after the FDA identified that melamine in the wheat gluten used to thicken the gravy in pet foods was the source of the contamination.
Following the latest recall by Menu, Nutro ordered ALL Nutro wet pouched and canned foods made with wheat gluten removed from store shelves regardless of the date of production and asked pet owners to stop feeding those products to their pets.
"Pet owners are fed up with confusing information regarding the Menu Foods recall," said Dave Kravis, president and CEO of Nutro Products. "I had previously ordered a broader recall of affected products than what Menu Foods had suggested. Given this new information from Menu Foods, I have ordered all wet pet food products containing wheat gluten to be removed from store shelves. Our dry pet food is not made by Menu and remains unaffected by the recall."
As a result of this new information, Nutro has suspended all shipments to retail stores of Nutro's wet canned and pouch products that contain wheat gluten until Nutro is able to confirm their safety.
Nutro Products is asking all customers who have the following Nutro wet pet food products (which are made by Menu Foods and contain wheat gluten) regardless of "best by date," to immediately stop feeding the products to their pets.
- All Cat Pouch Food Products
- Listed Cat 3.0 oz can products
- All Dog Pouch Food Products
- Listed Dog 12.5 oz Canned Products
A detailed list of all recalled products may be found at http://www.nutroproducts.com.
Nutro's products are 100% guaranteed and all returned product will be refunded. Customers should return products affected by the recall to the retail location where they purchased the product.
Nutro customers may check Nutro's website (http://www.nutroproducts.com) or contact Nutro's Consumer Hotline (800) 833-5330 for further information about its products. 4-10-07
© 2007 North Country Gazette
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/2007/041007ThirdRecall.html