Pet Food Contamination - UPDATE
On May 22, 2008, Menu Foods and other pet food manufacturers agreed to a settlement on the class action lawsuit resulting from last year’s pet food contamination. As part of the settlement, they will set up a $24 million fund to reimburse owners for expenses relating to pet deaths or injuries, screenings, and as compensation for food purchases. This is in addition to $8 million that has already been paid to owners. Also, they are required to screen for melamine, which owners say they are already doing.
The pet food manufacturers are bearing the brunt of the expense relating to the contamination issue. But a root cause analysis shows that a significant portion of the blame lies in the regulatory process and dishonest raw material suppliers. After all, the pet food manufacturers made pet food using raw materials that had been certified as meeting their requirements (which called for no foreign material contamination) and had not been flagged by the FDA.
It has become increasingly clear that the FDA is not able to properly due its job in the increasingly global nature of U.S. foods and drugs. The contaminated heparin found earlier this year shows that changes are too slow being made. And, there is new evidence that private laboratory testing companies in the United States do the bidding of foreign importers who hire them, not the FDA. These labs have stated that testing results for food entering the United States, no matter what kind of contamination they show, belong to the company. This means that the results may only be released to the FDA once the company desires - or once a positive result has been obtained - no matter how many rounds of testing that requires. Some labs have also claimed that importers “lab shop” - sending samples to lab after lab until they get the result they want. Labs are not required to submit samples to the FDA. So, the FDA may be in the dark about companies that repeatedly have contamination in their food products.
Dr. David Acheson, the FDA’s assistant commissioner for food protection supports congressional proposals that private labs be accredited by the FDA. Hopefully action will be taken soon, before more tragedies occur.