Pet Food Company Failed to Properly Test Corn, FDA Report Says

COLUMBIA, S.C. _ Diamond Pet Foods improperly tested, or failed to test, corn shipments for a deadly fungus during the weeks before it shipped food that killed dozens of dogs last month, a government investigation has determined.

The company allowed some corn shipments into its Gaston, S.C., manufacturing plant without testing them for aflatoxin. In other cases, tests for the poison were not properly conducted at the plant, according to a report expected to be released this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The federal agency began an investigation into the South Carolina plant after the company recalled about 1 million pounds of dried dog food on Dec. 20, said Phil Campbell, the Atlanta-based FDA official in charge of the inquiry.

The FDA report represents the agency’s findings but does not penalize the company.

“Diamond Pet Foods has cooperated fully with the FDA during its investigation,” company spokeswoman Carol Anderson said Friday.

Since the recall, the company has strengthened its testing of corn arriving at the plant and started testing its final product before it is shipped. “This additional step will provide an extra layer of protection,” Anderson said.

The FDA considers human and pet food to be adulterated if aflatoxin is found at levels greater than 20 parts per billion.

The toxin grew on South Carolina corn, making its way through gaps in testing and into bags of dog food shipped from Diamond Pet Foods’ Gaston plant to stores in 23 states.

South Carolina and the rest of the Southeast are known to have a higher incidence of aflatoxin because of hot, humid summers, experts said.

For years, the South Carolina Department of Agriculture has provided aflatoxin testing to farmers, manufacturers and others at no charge as a public service.

Samples of corn and corn products from feed mills are tested to comply with a state law that requires the Department of Agriculture to monitor animal feeds to ensure they contain the amounts of protein, calories and other ingredients stated on the label.

The state also tests those samples for aflatoxin, although that test is not required by state or federal law.

Out of the 1,413 tests that state agriculture officials conducted over the past two years, a quarter found levels of aflatoxin higher than allowed by the FDA, according to records obtained by The State newspaper under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act.

On Dec. 20, Diamond Pet Foods recalled dried pet food produced at its Gaston plant from Sept. 1 through Dec. 6, saying batches had been found with high levels of aflatoxin. Those batches bore use-by dates of April 1 to June 6, 2007.

By late December, the company determined that the poisonous batches were produced Oct. 1-15 (use-by April 1-15, 2007).

Mark Brinkmann, the company’s chief operating officer, said this month the recalled food was made with corn grown in South Carolina and bought through a single dealer in the Southeast.

Edgar L. Woods, owner of Palmetto Grain Brokerage, said this month that he is the go-between for the corn sales made to Diamond Pet Foods.

Dealers often are required by their contracts with manufacturers to provide test results showing that corn has not been poisoned by aflatoxin, Woods said. Farmers need similar tests to get U.S. Department of Agriculture loans on their crops, a common practice.

But ultimately, the buyer is responsible for ensuring the grain meets FDA guidelines, Woods said.

“They have their own inspectors and have to check the cars before it’s unloaded,” he said. “If they don’t like it, they don’t need to unload it.”

No state or federal agency is required to test corn going into food plants for processing or coming out of the facilities as meal for corn bread or dried dog foods. Instead, officials rely on manufacturers to follow practices considered good within the industry.

Diamond Pet Foods’ policy was to collect a sample from each incoming truck or rail car and use a “cup test,” which could determine whether aflatoxin was present at levels above 20 parts per billion.

In past years, the Gaston plant had received one or two tainted loads per year. Last September, it started receiving one or two per week, Brinkmann has said.

The increased frequency led the company to adopt a new testing method that provided not just a yes-or-no result for aflatoxin’s presence, but also measured its concentration.

Workers were trained, and the new test went into use Nov. 30.

About 100 dogs have died or become sick from aflatoxin poisoning in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania, based on reports from South Carolina officials, individual phone interviews and newspaper reports from other states.

The toll in South Carolina stands at 52 dogs poisoned after eating Diamond Pet Foods, including 35 dead, said Pamela Parnell, a pathologist who has studied the cases at Clemson University’s animal research laboratory in Northeast Richland.

“I keep hoping people stop feeding this, and we stop seeing them,” Parnell said. “It’s a slow-acting poison. It can still cause severe damage a couple weeks after you stop feeding it.”

The FDA doesn’t allow human or pet food to contain more than 20 parts per billion of aflatoxin. But it also doesn’t require testing for aflatoxin and conducts few tests itself. The agency’s most recent report shows it tested 305 agricultural samples for aflatoxin in 2004, including five from South Carolina. Seven of the samples were above FDA limits for aflatoxin and other types of fungus toxins, including one from South Carolina.

The state Department of Agriculture’s test records over the past two years show spikes in aflatoxin readings _ mostly in feed corn _ during the 2004 and 2005 harvests and in March 2005.

Phil Trefsgar, the Department of Agriculture’s chief chemist, said most samples tested are suspect corn, so they have a higher incidence of aflatoxin than most South Carolina corn. “It doesn’t necessarily throw up a red flag for us,” Trefsgar said.

“Our feeling is that what we do is good enough for the hot seasons and not-so-hot seasons. We feel our sampling is adequate no matter what goes on.

“Maybe we need to rethink that. I’m sure we could do a better job.”

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(c) 2006, The State (Columbia, S.C.).

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