Menu Foods

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Menu Foods Limited^[1], based in Streetsville, Ontario, Canada, is the leading North American private-label/contract manufacturer of wet pet food products sold by supermarket retailers, mass merchandisers, pet specialty retailers and other retail and wholesale outlets.

In March 2007, after several animals fell ill and died during quality-control tests, the company recalled over 60 million containers of food. Subsequent to the recall, veterinary experts identified a contaminant in some of the recalled food: aminopterin, a chemical used as rat poison. Efforts to date to trace its entry into the product have not been successful. The incident has been labeled "one of the largest consumer-product recalls in North American history".^[2]

1 Overview
2 Recall
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Overview

Menu's production facilities are located in Emporia, Kansas; Pennsauken, New Jersey; North Sioux City, South Dakota; and Streetsville, Ontario. The plants produce wet pet food in aluminum and steel cans at a rate of 1,000 cans per minute, or 1,110 85-gram pouches per minute. Jointly, the plants are able to produce over one billion containers a year.^[3]

Menu is the only private-label supplier and contract manufacturer in North America offering wet pet food in pouch format.

It manufactures pet food for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers, including PetSmart, Safeway, Wal-Mart, Pet Valu, Kroger, and Ahold USA. It is also a contract manufacturer of branded pet food products, manufacturing for five of the top six branded companies in North America, including Procter & Gamble^[4] ^[5], for which it is the exclusive supplier of canned wet pet food sold under the Iams brand, P&G having sold its North Dakota plant to Menu Foods in 2003.^[6] Menu Foods also produces Loblaws' "President's Choice," A&P's "Master Choice," Sobeys' "Compliments," Safeway's "Select," ^[7], Eukanuba, and Nutro.^[5] The company manufactuers both low cost and high end pet food products.

Paul Henderson serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Menu Foods. Mark Wiens is Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer. ^[8]

[edit] Recall

This section documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

The Associated Press reported on March 16, 2007 that Menu was recalling dog food sold under 48 brands, and cat food sold under 40 brands, after an unknown number of animals suffered kidney failure after eating it. Chief Executive and President Paul Henderson said the company had received an undisclosed number of complaints that pets were vomiting and suffering kidney failure.^[5] At least 471 cases of poisoning have been reported and 104 animals have died. ^[9] Experts are concerned that the death toll could potentially reach into the thousands. ^[10] At least one human who ate the contaminated pet food became sick as well.^[11]

In an interview with ABC News, Dr. Ed Loebach, a medical advisor and veterinarian with Banfield Animal Hospitals, advised pet owners to monitor their animals for the following signs of possible kidney failure:

Increased water intake,
Increased volumes of urination,
Unwillingness to eat,
Vomiting and
Lethargy.

Animals exhibiting these symptoms should be taken for veterinary care as soon as possible. ^[12]

Menu Foods set up two hot-lines for customers to call. The company also provided a complete list of the recalled products on its website. [1]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is conducting an investigation on the Menu Foods recall and recently stated that seven out of fifty subject animals died in tests conducted on the manufacturer's suspect dog and cat foods after complaints surfaced regarding the products. The U.S. FDA investigation is focusing primarily on wheat gluten imported from China, a fairly common ingredient in pet foods, as the likely source of contamination.^[13] In press reports, wheat gluten has been characterized as a filler^[14] and as a protein source^[15]. An FDA FAQ on the recall^[16] describes it as a mixture of proteins which serves as a filler, binder, and gravy thickener. Investigations ruled out mold and toxic heavy metals as contaminants.^[10]

On March 20, a class action lawsuit in the United States was brought in federal court in Chicago [2].

On March 22, the Animal Medical Center in New York City, a top veterinary hospital, said that they already knew of 200 cases and expect "thousands" of pets to eventually be affected. Also on March 22, a class action lawsuit was filed at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto against the company, alleging negligence. A similar suit was filed in Windsor, Ontario. By that time, the company's stock had fallen 47% since the announcement of the recall on March 15.^[17]

On March 23 the compound aminopterin, used outside the United States as rat poison, was found in samples of recalled pet food by the New York State Food Laboratory. This information was announced in a joint statement by New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker and Dr. Donald Smith, dean of Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine. ^[18]^[19] Menu Foods announced they would begin inspections of all production facilities and ingredients, but had not confirmed the claim as of Friday. Company President Henderson said only "We've identified a correlation with a single ingredient and we've stopped using that ingredient."^[20]

On March 24, Menu Foods requested all of the recalled brands and products, regardless of date, be removed from store shelves, according to the Food and Drug Administration. This procedural change was meant to ensure that contaminated products are not inadvertently left on the shelves. This action does not represent an expansion of the recall; the list of brands and products being recalled remains the same.^[21]

On March 27, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center expressed concern that the problem may not yet be fully understood and that other contaminants may be involved, noting that "clinical signs reported in cats affected by the contaminated foods are not fully consistent with the ingestion of rat poison containing aminopterin".^[22]