Cheaper source from China linked to tainted pet food

While print and broadcast media, a week after a massive recall, heralded the discovery of rat poison found in pet food sold under 95 labels by Menu Foods, it was ABC News that went a step further, noting the rodenticide --- illegal to use in the U.S. --- was on contaminated wheat gluten imported from China.

Paul Henderson, chief executive of Menu Foods, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, confirmed Friday that the wheat gluten was purchased from China.

More companies are going to that communist nation as a source for cheaper supplies.

Today’s Los Angeles Times reports Veterinarians Information Network  members had reported 471 cases of kidney failure --- including 104 deaths --- in the 10 days since the tainted pet food recall.

Grumpy Editor says when it was found that particular type of rat poison was illegal to use in the U.S., that’s when enterprising reporters should have picked up the phones, especially when complaints coincided with a new supplier --- which pet food maker Menu Foods, still does not identify.

Earlier, the Food and Drug Administration said the investigation into pet deaths was focused on wheat gluten in the food, adding the gluten itself would not cause kidney failure, but it could have been contaminated.

A prior supplier of wheat gluten to Menu Foods is MGP Ingredients, Atchison, Kansas.  A news release to Grumpy Editor pointed out MGPI’s last shipment of wheat gluten to Menu Foods was more than a year and a half ago.  "We have gone through periods in recent times where we have been forced to curtail our production and sales of wheat gluten due to economic and trade factors that have not allowed us to compete effectively with lower cost gluten imports," said Tim Newkirk, president and chief operating officer of the company that has produced gluten for about half a century.