Testing Reveals Melamine in Recalled Pet Food, but Not Rat Poison: FDA

WASHINGTON (AP) – Food and drug officials in the United States say recalled pet foods contained a chemical used to make plastics, but government tests have failed to confirm the presence of rat poison.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it found melamine in samples of the pet food made by Menu Foods (TSX:MEW.UN) of Mississauga, Ont., as well as in wheat gluten used as an ingredient.

Cornell University scientists also have found the chemical, also used as a fertilizer, in the urine of sick cats, as well as in the kidney of one cat that died after eating the company’s wet food.

Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of cat and dog food earlier this month after animals died of kidney failure after eating the company’s products.

It is not clear how many pets may have been poisoned by the apparently contaminated food, although anecdotal reports suggest hundreds, if not thousands, have died. The FDA alone has received more than 8,000 complaints.

The new finding comes a week after scientists at the New York State Food Laboratory identified a rat poison and cancer drug called aminopterin as the likely culprit – a finding the FDA says it could not confirm.

New York officials have detected melamine as well, though it’s not clear how that chemical would have poisoned pets.

It’s typically used to produce plastic kitchenware, though it’s apparently used as a fertilizer in Asia, said Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine.

The recall involved nearly 100 brands of “cuts-and-gravy” style dog and cat food made by Menu Foods. The recall covered products carrying names of major brand-name and private-label products sold throughout North America.

The apparently melamine-contaminated wheat gluten also was shipped to an unnamed company that manufactures dry pet food. The FDA is attempting to determine if that product, imported from China, was used to make any pet food, Sundlof said.

Menu Foods used wheat gluten, a source of vegetable protein, to thicken the gravy of its pet foods, FDA officials have said.

Units of Menu Foods Income Fund were trading eight cents lower Friday at C$3.81 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.