Thanks to the head-of-the-pack Itchmo! blog -- beyond JHritz's excellent diary yesterday ("Hill's Prescription DRY Cat Food, Alpo Dog Food, Join Recall"), we now also know the following:

Del Monte's Ol'Roy foods have been recalled: " Del Monte has announced that their Ol’Roy brand wet food, as well as the other brands have been made using the tainted wheat gluten also used by Menu Foods. The other brands are: Jerky Treats, Gravy Train Beef Sticks, Pounce Meaty Morsels, Dollar General, and Happy Tails. They are now recalling their food." (From Itchmo!'s post, "ANOTHER RECALL: Ol’Roy Wet Foods, Jerky Treats, Gravy Train Beef Sticks and Pounce Meaty Morsels.")

The melamine crystals were easily visible in the suspect wheat gluten -- so why weren't they seen as a "red flag" that required Menu Foods to immediately stop production? “There was a sizable amount of melamine. You could see crystals in the wheat gluten,” said the FDA’s top vet. Amazingly, no one noticed. Not at Menu Foods, not at Hills, not at Purina, not at Del Monte — all companies who are busy touting their high quality." (From Itchmo!'s post, "Melamine Crystals Could Be Seen in Wheat Gluten")

in the suspect wheat gluten -- so why weren't they seen as a "red flag" that required Menu Foods to immediately stop production? The FDA has identified the company that sells the suspected wheat gluten -- but the FDA has apparently not released this information to the media : FDA just issued this warning against the import of specific wheat gluten from a maker in China. The full name of the company is: Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company Ltd. This company also exports wheat flour, cornstarch, sweet potato starch, protein powder, zinc oxide, carrots, garlic, ginger, and other agricultural products. (Web site) This is the only known source of contamination identified by the FDA. Unfortunately, this was never released to the media from what we can gather. ... (Web site) (From Itchmo!'s post, "FDA Pinpoints Suspected Seller of Wheat Gluten") Susan's Question: How many of the company's products -- "wheat flour, cornstarch, sweet potato starch, protein powder, zinc oxide, carrots, garlic, ginger, and other agricultural products" -- are also used in human food sold in other countries, including the U.S.?

: Quite curiously, it was Menu Foods that supplied the pet food samples to the New York lab that, last week, announced the culprit was a rodenticide called aminopterin. Why then did other tests conducted elsewhere not show the aminopterin? (Read more speculations in this Itchmo! post, "What Exactly Did Menu Foods Give to the NY Lab?")

It's quite clear that this pet food recall is far from over. It's probably safe to predict that more companies will be forced to announce recalls. And thousands more pets will die before the companies finally announce that their products are suspect.

I laud Senator Durkin's press release today, in which he also credits the co-author of the letter to the FDA, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).

Sen. Durkin and his counterpart in the House, Rep. DeLauro, are the first two members of Congress to step up to the plate on this widening scandal to which there seems to be no end in sight.

But, there has to be more than "asking for an analysis of FDA's oversight of pet food manufacturing facilities and a report of actions taken since the recent pet food recall."

And there has to be more than accusing the FDA of failing at its job:

Based on the evidence so far, it would appear that FDA is failing its responsibilities to protect animals from unsafe food as much as it is failing to protect American consumers. They have never visited the plant in Kansas being mentioned as a possible source of the contamination, and the last time FDA inspected the New Jersey plant that has also been implicated was in 2004," said DeLauro, Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, FDA and related agencies. "For the past decade, many of us who have examined our food safety system have pressed for a consolidated food safety agency. In light of recent events it looks like we will need to broaden that effort to include pet foods to ensure that all family members are protected from food-borne illnesses.

I hope that Sen. Durbin and other members of Congress will also provide emergency funding to the FDA to help it repair its lost investigative abilities.

The FDA's field investigative units have been crippled by six years of Republican gutting of regulatory agencies.

From OMB Watch, February 2007:

Cuts at FDA Jeopardize Stomachs, Security Amid high profile food safety crises such as the spinach contamination of 2006 and recent salmonella tainted peanut butter, the FDA has been reducing its commitment to food safety, according to an Associated Press article. There are 12 percent fewer FDA employees in field offices who concentrate on food issues.



Safety tests for U.S.-produced food have dropped nearly 75 percent, from 9,748 in 2003 to 2,455 last year, according to the agency's own statistics.

As some of you will recall, I've been concerned for some time about cutbacks to regulatory agencies by the Bush administration -- all intended to free corporations from scrutiny and extra costs. These are my writings on oversight cutbacks:

"Dead By Sunset: Kill it, and make it look like an accident," April 2005: Buried deep in the reams of the new [2005] budget is a "sunset" provision that will permit a small commission -- it will be a commission comprised of lobbyists and corporate executives -- to kill the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration , even the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"The King of Everything: Olbermann's Commentary Tonight," February 26, 2007: ... Less in the public eye are the sweeping controls over federal agencies, emanating from the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB). [...] A New Bush Power-Grab

Frank O'Donnell (of Clean Air Watch)

February 22, 2007 Though the Senate stumbled in its effort to rein in President Bush's war plans, at least the issue was thoroughly debated in the House and in the media. Now it's time for Congress to directly confront the President again-this time on domestic policy. I am referring specifically to a new executive order from the White House that collects more power in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in a bid to exert a chokehold on federal agencies.

In the 2006 budget, reports OMB Watch, the slashes to the FDA budget meant that less and less human and animal foods would be inspected:

Budget Slashes Enforcement at FDA, EPA The White House's fiscal year 2006 budget submission will mean big cuts in food and drug safety inspection as well as state enforcement of environmental protections. Amidst mounting concern over the safety of our food supply from threats such as mad cow disease and bioterrorism and after a storm of criticism about FDA's botched inspection of British flu vaccine facilities, which led to a vaccine shortage this winter, FDA's budget proposes cuts to nearly all of its inspection programs. The new FDA budget proposes major cuts in both foreign and domestic inspection programs, including significant spending reductions in the following areas: 5 percent for domestic food safety inspections,

5.8 percent for foreign drug plant inspections, and

4.7 percent for inspections of national blood banks.

According to an agency statement given to USA Today, FDA will stretch its meager budget by targeting inspection towards only high risk cases ...

OMB Watch notes that the 2007 budget severely curtails the FDA's ability to oversee nanotechnology:

Under the President’s proposed 2007 budget for FDA, the funding gap between responsibilities and capacity will grow again, to 56%. This harsh budget reality is a real threat to FDA’s ability to effectively oversee nanotechnology. It means among other things that FDA lacks the resources it needs to build its own expertise, to develop the safety-testing protocols and detection methods needed to evaluate new nanotechnology products, to conduct its own risk research, to gather the necessary premarket data required to get ahead of commercialization and to oversee products after they have entered the market.

While I haven't so far found precise statistics on the FDA's budget problems for inspection of pet foods, it's easy to assume that that investigatory work is also severely under-budgeted and undermanned.

Particularly since the suspect ingredient comes from a company that also produces ingredients that can be found in HUMAN food, I think that Congress also needs to pass an emergency bill that permits the FDA to add investigators, statisticians, laboratories, veterinarians, and researchers so that we pet "parents" can be assured that we will get the most correct information possible.

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NOTE: Jhritz, in her diaries, makes it a point to provide alternative food choices for pet parents. I agree. Here are the two articles from Itchmo, one of which I contributed to, that give you pet parents the information you need to give your pets SAFE food.

What should I feed my pet? For Cats For Dogs

To that, I'd add that this article by a veterinarian -- "FEEDING YOUR CAT: KNOW THE BASICS OF FELINE NUTRITION" -- also has a list of recommended pet food products. Based on my own research, I concur that these are safe products.

Even though this list is for cats, brands such as Wellness also sell excellent food for dogs. So, use the list to find products for either cats or dogs.