Menu Foods Issues Recall of Specific Can and Small Foil Pouch Wet Pet Foods
Contact: Sarah Tuite (416) 848-1703
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- Emporia, KS -- March 16, 2007 -- Menu Foods, Emporia, Kansas, is initiating a North American recall of dog and cat food manufactured in its "cuts and gravy" format between December 3, 2006 and March 6, 2007. There has been a small number of reported instances of cats and dogs in the United States (none in Canada) becoming sick from kidney failure after eating the affected products. There have been approximately ten deaths reported.
Consumers who have product which is being recalled should stop using it and return it to Menu Foods in accordance with the procedure found at www.menufoods.com/recall. This procedure will be available from 6 a.m. Saturday March 17, 2007. If your dog or cat is showing any signs of kidney failure, consult your veterinarian.
The recall includes an extensive list of brand names and lot numbers. In order to determine whether cat and dog food is subject to recall, consumers should refer to the comprehensive list of products at www.menufoods.com/recall. This list of products will be available from 6 a.m. Saturday March 17, 2007.
Menu Foods voluntarily recalled the products after learning of complaints of vomiting and renal failure in dogs and cats following their consumption of product produced between December 3, 2006 and March 6, 2007. FDA has been apprised of this action.
Following feedings of the product, some cats and dogs refused further feedings, while others exhibited signs of renal failure (signs of renal failure include loss of appetite, lethargy and vomiting) and others died from renal failure. Menu Foods has undertaken extensive testing of the products in question, employing both internal and external resources, but to date has been unable to confirm any causal relationship to our product. Specifically, tests of some affected products have not revealed the cause of sickness, and testing will continue until a better understanding of the facts has been achieved.
Menu's products are distributed to supermarkets, pet specialty stores and mass merchandisers across the United States. It can best be identified by reference to the list of products found at www.menufoods.com/recall. This list of products will be available from 6 a.m. Saturday March 17, 2007.
Menu Foods is notifying its customers by telephone and mail and is arranging for the returnof all recalled products. The products were distributed throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.
While the number of complaints has been relatively small, Menu Foods is taking this proactive step out of an abundance of caution, because the health and well-being of pets is paramount to Menu Foods.
Consumers with questions may contact Menu Foods at 1-800-551-7392.
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oh yes, you must always satisfy the monkey. Strong and Beautiful smells like a monkey
Attention.....the first lawsuit has been filed. The owner of a tabby in chicago has filed for reimbursement (is that right) for vet bills and for the trauma her children have sufferred because the cat died.
Any comments?
Vet bills..ok. Trauma to the kids...please. Its a life experience and the kids will probably see a lot of other pets die. Who will they sue then?
I have lost a pet and know how sad I was when it happened. But, I got over it...
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"The life given us by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal." -Cicero
Straight Up wrote: I'm glad ... now maybe IO will feed me the good stuff for a change .....
Yeah babe .... you can have the ... Kibbles -n- Bitz ..... tonight ...
.. Yipeeeeee .....Kibbles -n- Bitz ..... Kibbles -n- Bitz ..... I'm gonna get me some Kibbles -n- Bitz ... I knew she loved me .... yipppeeeee ...... Damn .... now I gotta pee .... where's my favorite tree .......
Bread Styx wrote: Attention.....the first lawsuit has been filed. The owner of a tabby in chicago has filed for reimbursement (is that right) for vet bills and for the trauma her children have sufferred because the cat died.
Any comments?
Vet bills..ok. Trauma to the kids...please. Its a life experience and the kids will probably see a lot of other pets die. Who will they sue then?
I have lost a pet and know how sad I was when it happened. But, I got over it...
You beat me to it, I was going to post that. I read that today.
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oh yes, you must always satisfy the monkey. Strong and Beautiful smells like a monkey
I think that the pet food company should be liable for expenses incurred as a direct result of their bad product, including fees to replace the pet (although that is cold comfort). I also think they should have done that voluntarily and not only as a result of lawsuits against them.
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oh yes, you must always satisfy the monkey. Strong and Beautiful smells like a monkey
Buttercup wrote: I think that the pet food company should be liable for expenses incurred as a direct result of their bad product, including fees to replace the pet (although that is cold comfort). I also think they should have done that voluntarily and not only as a result of lawsuits against them. Yes, that was pretty much my thinking. But if it turns out that there was some kind of gross negligence on the part of the company, then I wouldn't be unhappy to see them have to pay out some money for emotional damage to the consumers.
Of course now it looks like it was rat poison in the food, so that opens a whole new can of worms.
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So make the best of this test, and don't ask why.
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time. - Green Day
Bread Styx wrote: WOW...I wonder if the supplier for the wheat product they think is responsible for the rat poison contamination will be sued........
That is a cute little Yorkie...hope he gets better.
That will be interesting to see. I don't know how the pet food industry operates, but in the food industry there are several different steps that manufacturers are to take before approving product for use. As an example, I work for ABC company that makes chicken soup mix. The chicken soup mix contains 10 ingredients. When each of those ingredients arrives at our manufacturing plant, they need to be quality tested and approved before using them. Then and only then can the chicken soup mix be made. Additionally, once the chicken soup mix is made, it has to be quality tested before being shipped out.
Now, if we were to get a bad ingredient from one of our suppliers which resulted in Bread getting sick from eating the chicken soup, technically WE would be liable for damages to Bread, because we allowed bad chicken soup mix to be distributed. However, the supplier of the bad ingredient would be subject to legal action by us for providing it to us, even though we took proper steps in protecting the integrity of our product. That's the way it's supposed to work, anyway.
Again, I don't know how the pet food industry works, and I don't know if the normal quality analysis procedures for pet food would detect the presence of the rat poison chemical.
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oh yes, you must always satisfy the monkey. Strong and Beautiful smells like a monkey
Little something on a load I pulled ..... Showed up at the receiver .... USDA turned down the load .... sealed it with a special seal ... seems like it said something about bad product .....
Anyway ..... return it back to the origin ..... USDA inspectors come out to my truck .... cut the seal off and replace it with a regular one ... Keep in mind they never even opened the doors .....
Get me a new set of bills and deliver same bad product to a different plant .....
There are a lot of good companies out there ... but some you really do not want to know what your eating ....
A few years back in Hamlet, NC .... A chicken plant burned 40 people up in a fire .....
Back up to the dock ......a little trip ... and all that chicken went on the grocery store shelf ....
I think I'll stop here ..... Glad I never hauled out of a beef plant .... like my cow to much to really want to see what happens there ....
Your food scare tactics will not work on me, I've seen and know a lot more than you may realize, lol.
In some cases, food manufacturers process food in ways other than for direct human consumption. For instance, one of the things that my company does is use chemical (actually, enzyme) digestion on protein to create flavors. While the parts used are not for direct human consumption, they are perfectly fine for that purpose as the product integrity is changed through processing. Also, there are different standards for product used for human and animal consumption, and some food manufacturers also proces components for animal food companies. So it's possible that the USDA rejected some food for one purpose but approved it for another. The USDA is pretty strict (around here, anyway) - we have to have an inspector on site every day.
As for the chicken, I think you're referring to Imperial Foods which was a horrible tragedy. What led to that fire was a lack of safety inspections and the arrogant uncaring nature of the company owners. They did have some quality issues as well, but the USDA as well as other agencies were crawling all over that place afterward and would not want the liabilty that would follow bad product, so I'm guessing that they tested the chicken that was in the freezer or cooler which was undamaged or affected by the fire and already processed and packaged. Mind you, that's just my speculation.
I'm not saying that there aren't bad companies out there, there are. There are indeed some companies that skirt the rules, some companies (from my side of the industry) that I choose not to use when recommending ingredients but they are the exception rather than the rule.
Go to a slaughterhouse one day, it's not pretty. I dare you.
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oh yes, you must always satisfy the monkey. Strong and Beautiful smells like a monkey
BTW ... what lead to the deaths was the management locking certain doors so the employees would stop stealing the chicken ..... I do believe some of the management did so time for that ...
Still .... I would not want to eat that stuff after the smoke from burned bodies was around it .... seems like it would pick up the flavor ...
Straight Up wrote: Bet you never seen anyone pissing on a pallet of chicken before ... have you .....(-:
Good morning BC ....
No, but I bet you've seen truck drivers throw boxes of food product from their trailer onto a dock, damaging the boxes as he's screaming at and threatening the plant employees who were just returning from lunch - even though he arrived during hours that he knew were those during which no receiving personnel was available.
However, if I did see someone urinating on a pallet of chicken, I would not stand idly by.
Good morning, SU.
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oh yes, you must always satisfy the monkey. Strong and Beautiful smells like a monkey
Straight Up wrote: BTW ... what lead to the deaths was the management locking certain doors so the employees would stop stealing the chicken ..... I do believe some of the management did so time for that ...
Still .... I would not want to eat that stuff after the smoke from burned bodies was around it .... seems like it would pick up the flavor ...
I know, that's exactly what I meant about the arrogant uncaring nature of the company owners. And yes, they did serve time for that.
I wouldn't want to eat that either, and I'm not saying that it was right. I was speculating as to the reason it was distributed.
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oh yes, you must always satisfy the monkey. Strong and Beautiful smells like a monkey