Tainted Pet Food: We Could Be Next.
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03.26.07
I am completely fascinated by the current tainted pet food scandal, not just because I have four cans of IAMS that my cat will never get to eat. What interests me is how it demonstrates the danger of concentration of production in very few hands, and b) despite all of the billions spent on advertising, there is so little "choice".
In this case, a small Canadian producer anticipates the growth of private labels in the '70's; starts buying producers in the States and builds a factory in Kansas, keeps growing until it is producing 91 different brands from the generics and house brands in Wal-mart to the expensive and supposedly better stuff from Iams and the like. It converts itself into a Canadian tax dodge called an income trust, where management has one goal- reduce costs and keep up the distributions to unitholders.
Then around March 10, something goes wrong, and animals start getting sick or dying all over North America. The company starts feeding its food to its own animals. Nine die.(a scandal in itself) It finally orders a recall of sixty million cans or pouches. According to the Globe:
"One of the most surprising things to emerge was just how many customers Menu Foods served.
The recall covered 42 brands of cat food and 53 brands of dog food. And it involved products sold by some of the world's biggest companies, including Nestlé (Purina), Procter & Gamble (Iams), Colgate-Palmolive Co. (Science Diet) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Ol'Roy and Special Kitty)."
Evidently the company had recently changed its suppliers of wheat gluten, a filler substitute for the real meat that we pay for when we buy expensive cat food, the gluten came from China, where they appear to control rodents with a rat poison called aminopterin. Next thing we know, almost every brand of wet pet food in North America is poisoned.
Now there are perhaps hundreds of dead pets and thousands of sick ones, with vet bills in the millions. Class action suits have already begun.
Is the human food system so different? Do all industrially farmed pigs or cows get some additive or drug that could come back to harm us, all over the country, all at once? Are all the tear-inducing dog food commercials complete manipulation, because it is all the same crap whatever label is on the can? Do Income Trusts lead to unitholders first/ customers and safety second? Given last year's tainted spinach scandal, is large scale industrial food production inherently dangerous?
So many questions.
UPDATE: Read Advertising Age and ::Sustainable is Good
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Why A Little Melamine-Tainted Food Is Good For Us
- New Tracing System To Improve Safety of Chinese Products
- Ten Things to Eat Before They Die
- Film Review: Food Fight
Our friends across the pond have much more experience with this than do we in North America. In the late 90's and early 200)'s there were several inicidents of oil and foodstuff contaminations with chlorinated synthetics, including dioxin. People were so upset with it, along with the following Mad Cow incidents, that there were major overhauls of food safety laws. Many trace the popularity of organic and locally grown food in Europe to those incidents. Think there's a market for boutique, organic dog foods ready to blossom? You betcha.
"The company starts feeding its food to its own animals."
Call it what it is - Animal Testing.
Seriously, how many animals do you suppose were forced to become ill and/or die before these products even went to market? Apparently it is a Big Deal when pet food kills your family pet, but when these same companies kill the same cute & cuddlies in their labs...?
Coincidentally, or not, you will see none of the companies from Menufoods recall list on this list:
http://www.iamscruelty.com/notTested.asp
Excellent article Lloyd, you raise good questions that i hope get a wide audience in light of yet another mass food epidemic.
Wheat gluten isn't just in pet food, it's in food that a lot of vegetarians and vegans eat. What's stopping humans from eating tainted wheat gluten too?
Food just doesn't appear to be safe, period. Even good organic stuff can kill you with e. coli.
The recall is fascinating, disturbing, and a symptom of a much larger epidemic.
"The recall is fascinating, disturbing, and a symptom of a much larger epidemic."
What epidemic? When these things do actually happen, which is increasingly rare, they more often than not originate in so-called "organic" food products.
"What's stopping humans from eating tainted wheat gluten too?"
And while we're at it, what's stopping humans from chugging a jug of Javex bleach? Or sticking our hand into a paper-shredder?
Absolutely nothing.
"Food just doesn't appear to be safe, period."
No? Then you should try the alternative and see how well that works out for you.
"Food just doesn't appear to be safe, period."
I just, I just, can't get over that alarmist quote. Susan, fear can be your friend but let us not go overboard.
"The recall is fascinating, disturbing, and a symptom of a much larger epidemic. "
Epidemic, huh. Let's see:
ep·i·dem·ic
1 : affecting or tending to affect a disproportionately large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time
2 a : excessively prevalent b : CONTAGIOUS 4
So. Is the sky falling? Is it now? How about now...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-goldstein/tainted-wheat-gluten-sold_b_44743.html
Tainted Wheat Gluten Sold as "Food Grade"
Del Monte Foods has confirmed that the melamine-tainted wheat gluten used in several of its recalled pet food products was supplied as a "food grade" additive, raising the likelihood that contaminated wheat gluten might have entered the human food supply.
"Yes, it is food grade," Del Monte spokesperson Melissa Murphy-Brown wrote in reply to an e-mail query.
I was talking to friends bout this could it happen to all of the people here in the states. What gets me is this the same wheat we sell to them? then buy back the gluten from our own wheat we sell to them? What gives
i am so confused. does this mean that the recall is in the uk also if so which ruddy foods! it gives no info
LA: it is a North American thing.
I just looked at the list of ingredients on the back of a package of veggie sausage, and wheat gluten was among them. Food for thought I'd say. Literally.
Another recall story. 26 "million" pounds of hamburger recalled. The good news was it is "people" food. ;-)
It took the USDA 18 days to conclude the meat was bad. A brief summary of this news at this link along with a bacterial study on raw diets for cats and dogs.
http://www.petmonologues.com/pet022207/?p=368
The meat recall prompted this post.
Another recall story. 26 "million" pounds of hamburger recalled. The good news was it is "people" food. ;-)
It took the USDA 18 days to conclude the meat was bad. A brief summary of this news at this link along with a bacterial study on raw diets for cats and dogs.
http://www.petmonologues.com/pet022207/?p=368
The meat recall prompted this post.