This timeline of the 2007 pet food recalls documents how events related to the 2007 pet food recalls unfolded. Several contaminated Chinese vegetable proteins were used by pet food makers in North America, Europe and South Africa, leading to kidney failure in animals fed the contaminated food. Both the centralization of the pet food industry and the speed and manner of the industry and government response became the subjects of critical discussion.
Contaminated goods are imported
November 6, 2006 Tainted wheat gluten in bags from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company in China is imported to the United States by Las Vegas-based ChemNutra, Inc. from a Chinese textile company.
November 2006 Canada-based company Menu Foods begins to use the tainted wheat gluten at its plants in the U.S. states of Kansas and New Jersey.
Early reports of pet deaths
December 2006 Unconfirmed reports indicate that Menu Foods receives word of a possible problem with some of its products as early as December 2006.
February 20, 2007 Menu Foods acknowledges receiving the first complaints of sick pets on February 20.
February 26, 2007 The chief financial officer of Menu Foods, Mark Wiens, sells roughly half of his Menu Foods stock on February 26 and 27. He has referred to the timing as a "horrible coincidence."
February 27, 2007 Menu Foods begins internal taste testing of its food. The company conducts taste testing of its products quarterly, and the February testing was not a result of the received complaints.
March 2, 2007 The company begins to investigate a possible problem when as many as 1 in 6 pets began to die after consuming products containing wheat gluten.
Mid-march, 2007 Cornell University and a New York state-based testing facility receive samples from Menu Foods for testing.
The initial recall
March 16, 2007 On March 16, Menu Foods issues a U.S. nationwide recall for dog and cat foods produced at two of its facilities between December 3, 2006, and March 6, 2007. The initial recall comprises sixty million units of cuts and gravy-style food in pouches sold under nearly 100 brand names, including premium brands like Iams and private-label brands sold at nationwide chains such as Wal-Mart, Kroger, and other large retailers. While the recalled products represent just 1% of pet foods available in the U.S., the recall is one of the largest in American history.
March 21, 2007 Menu Foods confirms the problem was with the wheat gluten used to thicken and enrich the gravy in the canned and pouched wet food products, and that the medical problems exhibited in test subjects include kidney failure. At the time it is unknown why the kidney failure occurs.
Late March, 2007 Following the first word of a recall, reports of pet sicknesses and deaths began to come in from throughout the United States and Canada. Although Menu Foods products are also sold in Mexico, little information is published regarding the situation in that country.
Some independent sources, such as petconnection.com, begin collecting several hundred reports of animal deaths per day.
"Rat poison" alleged to be contaminant
March 23, 2007 The New York State Food Laboratory reported that aminopterin was found in samples sent to them by Cornell. Aminopterin is widely described in news reports as a "rat poison" though that assertion may be based upon a hypothetical use listed in the 1951 patent application and not upon the actual use of the chemical.
The recall expands
March 24, 2007 Menu Foods expands the recall to include dozens of more cat and dog food products, including all varieties of 'cuts and gravy' type wet pet food in cans and pouches, not just specific UPCs, as before, in order to ensure pet stores removed any chance of contaminated batches reaching consumers.
Wheat gluten contaminated with melamine
March 27, 2007 The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals first reports that symptoms described in affected animals are not "fully consistent with the ingestion of rat poison containing aminopterin."
March 30, 2007 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announces a possible source of the sicknesses, indicated by the presence of melamine, an industrial chemical, in wheat gluten imported from China. The FDA prohibits the import of wheat gluten from a specific Chinese company, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company (徐州安营生物技术开发有限公司),website, and says that the contamination may be in dry pet foods as well.
Late that Friday, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc., Del Monte, and Nestlé Purina recall several brands of wet and dry pet foods.
April 3, 2007 Concerns are first voiced in the news media that the imported gluten may have been used in products intended for human consumption, however the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assures consumers that all of the suspect gluten was used exclusively in pet foods and there is "no evidence to suggest that any of the imported Wheat Gluten from the suspect firm has entered the human food supply."
April 4, 2007 The contaminated wheat gluten is determined to have come directly from China or through the Netherlands to the U.S. through ChemNutra, a Las Vegas-based supply company for pet food manufacturers. ChemNutra orders a recall of all of the suspected wheat gluten batches.
The Chinese government refuses FDA requests to inspect facilities suspected of producing contaminated products.
April 5, 2007 The Chinese government categorically denies any connection to the North American food poisonings to the New York Times, claiming they had no record of exporting any agricultural products that could have tainted the recalled pet foods, including the wheat gluten that has been the focus of the investigation. The general manager of the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company also denied that they had exported any wheat gluten to North America.
April 6, 2007 The Chinese government tells the Associated Press that they will investigate the source of the wheat gluten. The Xinhua News Agency states that "sampling and examination" of wheat gluten was underway across China, centering on the presence of melamine.
Further recalls and possibly thousands of animals dead
April 9, 2007 News breaks that scientists at a University of California, Davis animal health laboratory confirmed that a "popular brand of pet food" submitted for testing by area veterinarians was contaminated with melamine, even though it is not on the list of recalled cat and dog foods.
April 10, 2007 On April 10, Menu Foods announces that the recall will be expanded to include foods manufactured at Menu Foods' plant in Streetsville, Ontario. Menu Foods officials had believed that the plant did not have the same problems as their New Jersey and Kansas plants, but tests revealed that contaminated wheat gluten had made it into Canada.
By April 10 Menu Foods had only confirmed 16 deaths outside of its test subjects, comprising 15 cats and one dog. This number is frequently cited in news reports as there is no equivalent of the Centers for Disease Control to verify the cause of other reported pet deaths.FDA limits Chinese food additive imports, Elizabeth Weise and Julie Schmit, April 30, 2007, USA Today, Accessed: 2007-05-01
April 11, 2007 One self-reported on-line data base reaches more than 3600 deaths allegedly connected to the recall. The FDA acknowledges receiving more than 15,000 complaints from consumers related to the recall, but will not comment on the possible number of pet sicknesses or deaths.
The same day, a distributor of agricultural and industrial products, Wilbur-Ellis Company, discovers a single pink, one-ton bag labeled "melamine" among 145 other white bags of imported rice protein concentrate from Binzhou Futian Biology Technology in China. Wilbur-Ellis immediately quarantines the shipment.
By April 11 there are more than 130 brands of dog and cat foods from five companies recalled. Most of the foods are wet, though there are some dry foods and dog biscuits as part of the recall as a precautionary measure even though no cases of poisoning from dry foods have yet been reported.
Senate hearings
April 12, 2007 Hearings are held by United States Senator Richard Durbin in front of the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies. FDA officials admit that contaminated food was likely still on store shelves throughout the country, and urge consumers to re-check the food they have in their possession.
Also on the 12th, Menu Foods admits that a "clerical error" allowed more tainted product to be released to the public after the recall had begun.April 12 Menu Foods Press Release
Recalls in South Africa Royal Canin dog food was recalled in South Africa on April 12 after 19 dogs were confirmed to be suffering "acute renal failure" related to eating recalled dog food. That week Hill's Pet Nutrition also recalled a batch of food for diabetic cats in South Africa.
A second contaminated food source
April 15, 2007 Wilbur-Ellis notifies the FDA that it had found a bag labelled melamine mixed in with a shipment of rice protein concentrate.
April 17, 2007 On April 17 a product not containing wheat-gluten is recalled due to the presence of melamine in pet food. Natural Balance Pet Foods has found melamine in two products containing rice protein from a then-unnamed supplier (Wilbur-Ellis). Eleven dogs and "three or four" cats are reported as known to be suffering kidney problems as a result of eating the food.
April 18, 2007 The contaminated rice protein is publicly identified as having come from Wilbur-Ellis, who had by then distributed the contaminated protein to five different pet food manufacturers in Utah, New York, Kansas and Missouri. Since pet food recalls are voluntary, the FDA refuses to name the companies involved.
Additional contaminants
April 19, 2007 On April 19, 2007, researchers announce that they have identified three additional chemicals in the melamine-contaminated rice protein and animals that had consumed it. The chemicals include cyanuric acid, a chemical used in chlorinated pools. All three chemicals are derivatives of melamine.
The same day, Royal Canin issues recalls of eight varieties of their pet foods.
Also on April 19, U.S. federal officials said that they were investigating reports that Binzhou Futian rice protein had been used in hog feed, but declined to specify where. The California Department of Food and Agriculture placed American Hog Farm in Ceres, California, under quarantine, after melamine was found in the urine of the hogs on the farm. California State Veterinarian Dr. Richard Breitmeyer said "All animals appear healthy," and that "It is unknown if the chemical will be detected in meat." American Hog Farm primarily supplies whole hogs to individuals. Anyone who has purchased a pig from American Hog Farm since April 3 is advised not to eat it.
April 20, 2007 The South African pet food industry announced that they would no longer import gluten products from China after the presence of melamine was confirmed in Chinese corn gluten. At least 30 dogs have died of kidney failure related to contaminated food in South Africa.
More recalls Also on the 20th, pet food company SmartPak issued a late night recall of two dog food products related to contaminated rice protein. SmartPak was one of the two remaining companies supplied by Wilbur-Ellis, leaving only one company refusing to recall its contaminated products.
April 23, 2007 China finally gave permission to FDA investigators to enter the country.
The human food supply
April 24, 2007