http://www.menufoods.com/recall/PRESS%20RELEASE03241409.htm

MARCH 24, 2007 - 14:09 ET



Menu Foods Initiates Market Withdrawal of All Varieties of Recalled Wet Pet Food to Ensure Consumer Protection



TORONTO, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - March 24, 2007) - As a result of reports from the FDA and various media outlets that some recalled lots of "cuts and gravy" style wet pet food remain on store shelves, Menu Foods has asked all retail outlets to immediately remove all impacted varieties of wet pet food posted at www.menufoods.com , regardless of the date code.

Menu Foods remains concerned that consumers are able to purchase recalled items.

There is no known risk from items not listed on the recall list but an abundance of caution is called for in this situation. FDA has been apprised of this action.

There is no known risk from items not listed on the recall list but an abundance of caution is called for in this situation.


do you think it would be wise to throw out any canned food at all that is made by menu food ? even if it doesnt contain wheat ?

Really, I don't know. I stopped feeding Fancy feast to the cats and saved all used portions. Put them on the Whiskas instead as it isnt made at Menu Foods.

Just wondering why you are not feeding the Fancy Feast? As far as I know, it is made by Purina and not affected by the recall...Is there something I missed? I feed my cats Fancy Feast, just concerned that I missed something...Thanks!!

I'm just being cautious. And my cats have been throwing up. So I'm taking no chances. I contacted Purina and they want me to call back with the UPC codes and expiration dates on my cans of Fancy Feast. So I'll see what they say.

Come on, it's spring! Cats throw up the extra hair they are shedding. Try not to be alarmist about this. Purina products are perfectly safe. It's an entirely different company. I was worried too, I had an elderly cat who died of kidney disease, it was long and difficult. But I thank God that my animals are okay. And the people who lost their babies have my deepest sympathies. The question that I have is if Menu foods is going to pay for the vet bills of those animals who's kidneys are damaged only. Spats was diagnosed with kidney disease, but I kept him alive and relatively healthy for four years. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth it. The whole thing makes me sad.

My cats are not throwing up hair...
I know my cats.
They havent thrown up since I switched them to a different food. So who knows.

You don't have to throw out your canned food from Costco. It is NOT made by Menu.....

catdogwoman said: "Purina products are perfectly safe. It's an entirely different company."

I wouldn't just assume that. Several products have been recalled under different brand names such as Alpo, which is made by Purina. You have to read the fine print.

Furthermore, I've been reading the blogs and I've seen several reports of dire illness in cats after having been fed Fancy Feast, which happens to contain a lot of wheat gluten. So, I'm sorry to tell you, but just because something isn't on the recall list doesn't mean that it's "perfectly safe". The fact of the matter is, that tainted batch of wheat gluten that was imported from China was distributed to many different companies throughout North America that make products under many different brand names, including Purina. Unfortunately, there really is no such thing as a safe brand right now unless you know for a fact that it does not use any imported ingredients.

Also, one of the people who claims that their cat got sick from eating Fancy Feast said that they called the FDA about it and complained about the fact that the brand was not listed on the recall and so they had assumed it was safe, and they said that they were told that the only thing they could do in order to be truly safe was just to avoid all pet foods that contain wheat gluten altogether for the time being. So, that's what I've been doing and so far none of my 6 cats have gotten sick at all, thank God, because I've been feeding them 9Lives Daily Essentials dry food and 9Lives moist canned food such as Chicken and Tuna Dinner, both of which use corn gluten instead of wheat gluten, throughout this entire ordeal and so far they are all remaining healthy.

So, just a word of advice, don't assume that anything is safe just because no one has said that it's not because the list of contaminated brands is still continuing to grow. My sister normally feeds her cat packets of moist food by Whiskas which is distributed by Mars, but since it contains wheat gluten she has stopped using it even though it's not on any recall list yet, just to be safe. There are other brands of moist food out there that do not contain wheat gluten and most dry foods do not contain it either but even so, almost all commercial petfood does contain some kind of wheat product, much of which is imported from "developing" countries overseas, and so lots of people have even stopped buying commercial petfoods altogether and are now making homemade foods for their pets which you can find recipes for online.

To be honest, I'm even getting leery of eating anything with wheat gluten in it myself because of the fact that according to Del Monte, at least some of the tainted stuff that came from China was being sold as "food grade" rather than just "feed grade", meaning that it's very likely that at least some of it has ended up in our foods as well. And the fact that the tainted product has been traced to a Chinese biotech research facility does not make me feel any better about the situation. I'm not saying that we should panic about it but we should definitely keep in mind about how serious of a situation this really is and don't let our guards down until everything has been properly sorted out.