Melamine scare

On March 17, 2007 Menu Foods, Inc. a major manufacturer of dog and cat food in North America recalled 60 million containers of wet food after it received reports of pets suffering kidney failure.

Since then, the company has expanded its recall and several other companies also have voluntarily withdrawn products from the market.

Initial reports in March reported the death of about 10 animals after consuming the infected pet food, supplied to Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger, PetSmart and other retailers. The food that has been specifically targeted for recall was sold between Dec. 3 and March 6 throughout the US, Canada and Mexico.

After a major investigation it was shown that wheat gluten contaminated with melamine from Chinese producers was the cause of this major pet food contamination. Later, the melamine was also found in pig feed. The farmer has used salvage (contaminated) pet food to feed the pigs.

Indiction
As a result of FDA and USDA's comprehensive investigation, on February 6, 2008, FDA announced that two Chinese nationals and the businesses they operate, along with a U.S. company and its president and chief executive officer, were indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in a scheme to import products purported to be wheat gluten into the United States that were contaminated with melamine.

Not only the Chinese companies were punished, through the whole incident, Menu Foods lost its major client; Wal-Mart.

See also:
Weblog - Pet food scare, when will it stop

News (March 19, 2007) - North America recalled millions of cans

News (May 1, 2007) - China oftens uses melamine in feed
News (june 2, 2008) - Approval for Menu Foods settlement
Weblink - FDA's recall page

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