Menu takes the recall out for another spin

One of our intrepid commentors posted a link to Menu Foods' CEO Paul Henderson's June 28 address to shareholders, so since I've no life at all, I sat down and read it. It leads off with an overview that stresses that no one anywhere was monitoring ingredients for the presence of melamine, which is certainly true:

It’s important to understand that everyone involved in the industry -– suppliers, competitors, regulatory authorities – never suspected melamine. It just hasn’t ever happened before and none of the industry standard tests -- which we all used –- could have detected it. To our knowledge, no pet food or human food manufacturer had ever tested wheat gluten for melamine, prior to this incident.

He also says that Menu Foods has never had any kind of "food safety recall" before. Then we get on the merry-go-round:

I cannot stress enough that the entire pet food industry was baffled by the inclusion of melamine and related compounds in pet food ingredients. Menu Foods, other industry participants, the US Food and Drug Administration and many others worked feverishly to determine the nature and source of the problems that began to be identified in early March. Menu cooperated fully with the government investigators and threw an array of its own technical and management resources to discover what was going on.



Recognize that for several weeks, there was conflicting information about whether a problem even existed . . . let alone what the source of that problem might be.



Nevertheless, even in the face of inconclusive data, we acted.



We demonstrated our responsibility to our customers, the pet food industry and pet owners, by acting with diligence and speed.



We devoted our technical resources to finding out what was going on.



In fact, even before contaminated wheat gluten was identified as the possible source of the problems, we suspended its use out of an abundance of caution. And once the problems were identified, we recalled the products we believed were affected.



In fact – and I will emphasize this – Menu Foods’ first recall was more than two weeks before any other manufacturer initiated their recall.

And more than two weeks AFTER the first cat died in Menu's test labs, and nine days AFTER Menu changed gluten suppliers. And only a day after Iams basically told them that with or without Menu, they were recalling the next day -- as heard in Henderson's own testimony before congress in this exchange with Rep. Bart Stupak:

STUPAK: “But even before you - I don’t mean to be argumentative, here - even before you, at Menu Foods, and the FDA decided to recall, Iams had already told you they would no longer accept your product, and they were going to recall all food manufactured by Menu Food in, at the KS plant, right? So, really, IAMS was the first one to really start it, the ball rolling here that something was wrong. And I guess maybe what we’re getting at here is there’s also a corporate responsibility, instead of waiting for the FDA. If Iams, the pet food manufacturer sees a problem, and they’re recalling it, I would have hoped that the corporations would have done it without FDA authority. But even WITH FDA authority, if we could grant that to them, I think we could have maybe limited the scope of the harm caused throughout

our country.”



HENDERSON:“Well, again, relative to the facts as they actually transpired, the conversation that took place with Iams, they, they essentially shared some information with us. We got together the next day, and essentially in a, in a rather lengthy meeting, both parties exchanged what they knew. Being that individually there wasn’t enough information to, to draw conclusions. But together, it looked as from a circumstantial evidence perspective, as if we had the basis for a recall. They opted to recall, we went along. We announced first.”

Ah, how soon they forget. Fortunately, spocko's brain has a nice little video clip of the whole thing.



The PDF file of Henderson's remarks is here. [UPDATED WITH FRESH LINK HERE.] It's an interesting read.



UPDATE: And for more interesting reading: Therese at PetSitUSA.com blogged these choice words:

Henderson says people had confidence in Menu Foods before the recall. As we’ve all learned though, many, many people had no idea who Menu Foods was nor did they know Menu Foods was the manufacturer of their favorite brands. So it’s not actually Menu Foods they had confidence in, it was the private labels that Menu Foods manufactured for. Because of the recalls, people have lost confidence in the the brands they used to feed their pets, and now that they know who Menu Foods is, they don’t think much of them either.

Whole thing here.

Comments

[Trudy Jackson]

Stop the war, give them back their money and put an end to this. Period.

where is My FREE Country? I want it back.

[Nancy Nielsen]

Another one of these self-righteous eruptions from Menu Foods, who killed one of my loving pups and sickened another. Every day that I feed my dog, slowly and carefully because he's not the lively guy he was, feed him with stuff that I've cooked myself, every single meal of every day, I think of Menu Foods. They could have saved my dogs and chose not to.

[Steve]

ChemNutra still supplying the USA market?



China Finds Problems With Kids' Snacks

Authorities in China Find Children's Snacks Fail Food Standards.



http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3339998

[Evelyn]

Glad you saw Sicko, Carol.



Michael Moore is urging everybody to tell their friends about "Sicko".



The movie theatres are reluctant to show documentaries unless there is enough demand for them.



Normally, I don't fall for the plea--but this movie was so spellbinding that I did not go to the ladies room until the very end and was glad I was the first in line there--no more supersize diet pepsi before movie next time.

Did not want to miss a minute.



I laughed and I wept, both at different times.



Straybaby, the FDA digest was dated 7/2/07

[thomas]

Close economic ties are vital between the Us and china ? What so we can become a 3rd world country? So we can continue to have sick and dying pets, unsafe tires , bad vitamins, bad tooth paste etc? When will we loose all our freedom thanks to bushie and his buddies?

I called my Federal Senators and Represenitive today and ask them to vote against Farm Act 2007 Title 1 Sect. 123 . If this passes we will loose even more rights. Go look see for your self!!!

[Kat]

Menu Foods has a new & improved (yet modest) website. Full of drop-down menus, customer info, product info, stock info. Looks like they're trolling for business. And, back to business as usual. :(



http://www.menufoods.com/index.html

[MFEMFEM]

The self-righteousness, the hubris. If there is a hell I hope they have earned a reservation for one of its special places. They were responsible for the death of my best friend and the deaths of thousands of other innocent souls. I will never purchase another product from any company associated with Menu Foods, NEVER AGAIN!

[Carol]

Close economic ties are vital between us and China because we make so much $$$ from their cheap tainted products and we have so much invested in their homeland - factories, etc. Also we owe them a whole bunch of $$$. What a mess.

[Kat]

Cathy: You are gonna really chomp into this:



*Paulson: U.S. on guard against tainted Chinese goods*



http://tinyurl.com/2x8e4e



"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Monday defended Bush administration efforts to protect consumers from unsafe products from China and said close economic ties between the two countries were vital."...



... "Concerns over the safety of Chinese products entering the United States have climbed after a series of recalls and product bans on items as varied as children's toys to seafood and toothpaste, leading one lawmaker to call for an "import czar" to oversee import safety.



But Paulson said such a step was unnecessary.



"I frankly don't see the hole. I think it's being dealt with and I'm not sure that the answer to everything is creating another government position," he said." ...



Asleep at the Wheel... and he's our Treasury Sec.!

[Steve]

Most despised company in the Northern Hemisphere.

[Therese]

I don't have a life either apparently as I read it too. Blah, blah, blah...and so it goes!

[VJ]

In the local paper today there is a syndicated cartoon called "Mallard Fillmore by Bruce Tinsley". He finally touched on what is going on with China. The cartoon shows a picture of a torn bag of dog food with a dog on it's back, all 4 feet in the air and Mallard says "I can't believe that some people are surprised that China's exporting deadly dog food, toothpaste & toys..from the way the government treats its own people..you oughtta know it doesn't care about ours."

[Trudy Jackson]

Is Itchmo down again? I can't get it?

[Cathy]

So what killed our pets? ACETAMINOPHEN, MELAMINE, CYANURIC ACID, AMILORINE AND AMILORIDE, AMINOPTERIN, or an overdose of vitamins? For God's sake, what the h#!# has been happening?



Sorry, God really has nothing to do with this.



What a corrupt country we live in. What kind of government do we have that will not respond to our questions - local, as well as national. I'm so disgusted and tired of all of this. This is supposed to be the greatest nation in the world. So much for that.

[Steve]

I mean. How much more do we accept as safe for pet and human consumption?



China Faces a New Worry: Heavy Metals in the Food

Studies Warn of Produce Grown in 'Hot Spot' Soil;



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118333755837554826.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[Carol]

The movie was wonderful. As Moore so accurately says, "What have we become?" My friend died of pulmonary hypertension in 1993. She was very sick for 3 years and had nothing but insurance hassles. She also worked for a major telecommunications company! When you're ill billing problems should not be your problem! This has been going on for a very long time - too long.



Am going to contact Michael Moore. Hopefully he'll start an independent investigation into the problems we face with our human and pet food supply.

[Elaine]

An article showing one of the ways to control the presidential election, but it back-fired on them this time.



http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/NEWS09/707010342/-1/ENT06

[Sharron]

Menu Foods is full of an abundance of something, all right--but it ain't caution...

[MaKo]

Quote: Do you suppose the stock that was dumped at Menu (the unfortunate coincidence) had to do with being tipped off by IAMS?



Comment by Concha Castaneda — July 3, 2007 @ 8:57 am



To the best of my knowledge, the CFO of Menu sold 45% of his stock on February 27th, and that should have been about one week after the lab animals started their deadly work.



Since I have no access to Menu Foods INCOME Fund paper work, I don't know when the first animal died, but it is likely that it could have happened around that time. They must have been very sick, at least, when the CFO (Chief FInancial Officer = BigBwana responsible for money in company, knows what is going on) via some *unfortunate, horrible* coincidence got rid of stock that started plummeting shortly after.



Yeah, right.

[Evelyn]

Just got a an FDA notice that a hold has been placed on imports of farm-raised Chinese Seafood until proven safe from antibiotics banned in the U.S.



Anyone can go to the FDA website and subscribe to the FDA digest and get notices. I think the website is www.fda.gov



When will this nightmare end?

[Jay]

I went to the DesMoines story on Ron Paul, etc, but this caught my eye as a comment:

__

Do you want to know why the local media coverage was so bad? Most of these people were waiting for an AP Newswire. On a story IN THEIR OWN STATE.



Pathetic.

___

Many of us remember the abysmal media attention in the first days of the recall when if the Associated Press published a lie or half truth, it was repeated endlessly by these do-nothings who used to be journalists. Cats and dogs died because of them and it continues into the moment.



Blessings on those reporters who reported!

[Carol]

Guess I'll just have to rant some today. Have tried to avoid politics but can no longer refrain from commenting. The Bush administration is the most corporate centered administration in our history. We have been sold out to China and other countries where labor is cheap. Now we can no longer just go to a pet store or grocery store and buy food without worrying what the heck is in it. The FDA has been gutted and is at the beck and call of the companies whose products it should be regulating and inspecting. Yet we are supposed to be reassured that all is OK and our government is watching out for us.



I saw Michael Moore's Sicko over the weekend. The point he made was that in other countries people take to the streets and protest when there is a good reason. The last time we did that was before Iraq and the protesters were labelled as "unAmerican." We are a ME group of people not a WE group. The closest thing to a WE group are the pet lovers who have tried to do something about this crisis.



Until the big $$$ gets out of our government it's going to be a long haul for the rest of us.

[Evelyn]

Thanks, all you guys and gals, for writing to Michael Moore.



I am at my wits end to think of anything I can possibly do to help save pets from being poisoned, as you all are trying to do.



The more pet food we test, the stronger our case for the poison being in pet food becomes, I think. (I might be right or wrong, but my thinking is limited due to poison in my food).

[Evelyn]

straybaby:



Just got it in my e-mail box today--From the FDA Food Digest so I am not sure.



But I am ready to throw up when reading the Huffington Post today's issue (www.Huffingtonpost.com) Article say's China Finds kids' Snacks Substandard and then goes into a long list of disgusting problems. Ugh.

[JanC]

What a tangled web we weave when we choose to deceive.......Henderson, you are a pompous ass along with the rest of the jokers from FDA, PFI & PF companies. I think you all have told so many lies that you wouldn't know the truth from a lie if it smacked you in the face.....which I wish it would......



Sorry, but I couldn't finish reading that press release or whatever the hell it was. My anger got in the way.....

[Jay]

Some other executives at Menu Foods, with email addresses:



Robert W. Luba, Chairman of the Board of Trustees & Administration Board ([email protected])



Mark A. Wiens, Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, Secretary of Administrator ([email protected])



Randall C. Copeland, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Administrator ([email protected])



William F. Grant, Executive Vice President - Corporate Purchasing & Logistics of Administrator ([email protected])



Christopher J. Mifflin, Executive Vice President - Operations of Administrator ([email protected])



Richard G. Shields, Executive Vice President - Technical Services Administrator ([email protected])



Boycott Menu and all who have a business relationship with them, now and future, including Wal-Mart (Special Kitty), Safeway (Priority), and Wysong (Menu apologist).

[Trudy Jackson]

Steve, I read one link and some of the other one. I couldn't get the whole thing. china lies and lies. What in the Hell have i been eating for all these years? No wonder I have so many problems. And they will keep right on lying. I just had a couple of eggs and they really did taste funny. Were all those chickens for meat or are some of them for laying? And probably My Grandkids are getting this rotten junk food. I can't take much more.

[Mrs. P]

To Mr. Henderson and Menu Foods:

Rather than whining about being a victim of the Chinese, you should admit to avarice that goes way beyond the norm. You are not victims; we are victims of your greed. Does your PR firm realize that blaming the Chinese makes you look childish? We customers have read enough news stories about multinational companies objecting to China's attempt to improve workers' rights. Companies similar to yours believe basic human rights will cost them some of their profit. We are tired of your doublespeak, and we are pressuring the pet food companies we do business with to find another manufacturer. I think you need to realize the average customer is a little more sophisticated than you believe. It's past time for you people to admit the truth. You accepted a cheaper product without any kind of testing; you did not issue a recall without pressure from Iams; you did not follow some companies' recipes; you did not clean systems between runs; you sickened and killed our pets; you valued profit over quality. Admit it.

[Concha Castaneda]

Do you suppose the stock that was dumped at Menu (the unfortunate coincidence) had to do with being tipped off by IAMS?

[straybaby]

Evelyn,



Is this notice the same one that's been in the news for a bit? Or has it been expanded?

[Trudy Jackson]

I wrote to Michael Moore. A long letter and also told Him to check out Petconnection, and Itchmo. Please go ahead and write Him a letter. If He hears from enough of us he might do something.

[Trudy Jackson]

Just checking to see if My post is getting through.

[Stephanie Gossett]

Just for the record, I am sick to death of these people. We had to put our two precious dogs to sleep on Feb. 28th. They had been eating the Ol Roy pouches for breakfast (one per day). They had kidney failure and the FDA has tested our samples and the food is what caused their renal failure. It is ridiculous that they waited so long to issue the recall.

[MFEMFEM]

Comment by Jay — July 3, 2007 @ 3:58 pm



"Most of these people were waiting for an AP Newswire. On a story IN THEIR OWN STATE."





AP was busy covering a story on Paris Hilton's new line of designer toilet paper.

[Elaine]

A good website with info about contaminated food from China and trade issues.



www.tradereform.org/

[Elaine]

NY Times article on Country of Origin Labeling, we need to be contacting our congressmen after the 4th of July holiday.



www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/business/02label.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin

[Lew Orban]

I do not care who Menu foods is or who any other manufacturer of pet products is...what I do care about is the safety of the ingredients used. Under no circumstance should any food processor use any imported food from China in the process from this point forward. Menu and others where dupped just like all we were....no one did their job and all testing standards are sub standard here in the USA and in China. China is at fault and has been at fault for many many years. His statement tells it all...we have all eaten melamine at one time or another and it is in everything processed that used any of these glutens from China. He said.....No one has ever tested for melamine!....get the big picture! Every day dialysis clinics are being built all over America.....open your eyes and protect your food supplies now...ban all imports of processed foods from China!

Obewan

[thomas]

WE need to contact our congressman and representitives in the federal government after July 4 th . We need to tell them no to Farm Act 2007. Mainly Title 1 Sect. 123. This part was "snuck in" . This section will not allow you to know country of origin , it will not allow states or local governments to pass laws that supersede federal laws on labeling, on country of origin or on animal welfare. Federal Law would rule. More of our rights would be taken away thanks to Bushie , his cronies , farm organization , agri businesses and corporations. I read an article today in our local newspaper that some states are passing laws that any government money used to purchase usa flags could only be used to purchase flags made in usa (most usa flags are made in China). How about adding to the law that any food produced for human or pet consumption must have all ingredients made in USA. How about all childrens toys must be made in usa , all tires etc. How about stopping all chinese imports., it is up to their people and government to become an safe industrial country it should not be done at the expense of our pets and our people.

[thomas]

also farm act 2007 Title 1 sect 123 would not allow you to know if food is GE or Gmo's . Produce, meat dairy etc.

[Mrs. P]

Thomas -- I found the 2007 Farm Bill, http://agriculture.house.gov/inside/2007FarmBill.html.

It looks like section 121 repeals COOL (p11) and section 123 won't allow states the right to say no to stuff approved by USDA.

http://agriculture.house.gov/inside/Legislation/110/LDP.pdf

[thomas]

Thank you very much Mrs. P !! Everyone please call , write and email your elected officals before we loose more rights. Also stuff approved by the usda can mean meets etc. also would effect animal welfare laws.

[Mrs. P]

The members of the agriculture committee are listed on the website I mentioned above, so I plan on contacting all of them, too. I may not be in their district, but they need to know that bill is dangerous to us regular citizens and voters. I'm sure companies and factory farms not in their district are contacting them. (Except I don't have a slush fund.)

[Elaine]

Thomas and Mrs. P.,



The 2007 Farm Bill has some good things in it,such as the requirement to implement mandatory COOL. We are working to insert competition titles to protect the family farms and ranches from predatory pricing tactics of the big 4 packers.



Mrs. P, Section 121 does NOT repeal COOL, it just protects it from being paired with the NAIS, which is the National Animal ID System, which would require all the millions of livestock and poultry in this country to be ID'd with a computer chip AND registration of Farm premises with our USDA, AND notification requirements to inform the govt if we move the animal or chicken from premise! What an invasion of privacy AND boondoggle that would be!



The Chairman of the Ag committee, Collin Peterson, was being pressured by the Big 4 Packers to pair COOL with the NAIS, because they knew how adamantly against NAIS family farms and ranches are, so the plan was to pair the two so that farmers and ranchers would then think that COOL legislation should be defeated.



Because the 2007 Farm Bill contains so many provisions, (I think it even addresses food stamp funding) there is no chance that the whole bill would be defeated. So we need to inform ourselves and work on getting the good provisions in (such as COOL and competition titles) and the BAD stuff out (Such as Section 123 which won't allow states to make laws against foods that the USDA approves, such as GMO's)

[Concha Castaneda]

In Ohio yesterday, this guy burned down two houses with a bottle rocket that didn't go into the air as planned. Instead it went sideways into this guys garage. My first thought was that that little piece of pyrotecnic probably came from China. Hard to make people connect the dots!

[Mrs. P]

Thank you, Elaine. I want COOL enforced and would like to see the end of NAIS. Everytime I write to Senators telling them I don't like it, they write some drivel about we must have it. My sister does organic eggs and she found out the cheapest she could get those microchips is $9. That's more than she can get for a chick. She thinks NAIS is a quick way to finish off the small farms, leaving only factory farms in business. The GMO stuff scares me. I hate the mindset that industry doesn't have to prove it's safe; science has to prove it's unsafe. Talk about bassackwards. Personally I feel that the 2007 Farm Bill needs to be stripped down. (I guess all bills are like that.) I don't understand why food stamps would need to be there. I will be reading the R-Calf USA pages.

[PegH]

Thanks Elaine

Will try to backtrack. Maybe the archives of PC

[Elaine]

Schnauzer,



I think one of the original articles on diethylene glycol said that over 1,000 have died world-wide from poisoning. Some in S. America and some in Africa.



Scarey to read that it is in allergy pills! My grandkids use them daily this time of year.

[Trudy Jackson]

Who knows more I can look up about the Kibbles and Bits? My daughter feeds that to Her dog.

[Elaine]

Peg,



It seems the Innova problem was discussed a few days ago? I don't have time to check and find it, and I don't remember for sure which formula.



Wish I could be more help with a photographic memory! :)



Don't hesitate to ask questions, perhaps the person that posted about Innova will see it. Maybe post your comment on the most recent thread, even tho the subject doesn't match.

[thomas]

Thanks Elaine

Are you a farmer? We do not want Cool repealed , want it enforced. Also I definitely want TItle ONE Section 123 removed. I know alot of small family farms do not like parts of this bill either. The problem with food stamps being in this bill is that some times peoples food stamps are cut so they can provide large farm welfare payments to factory farms.



A web site contains information on a old law suit against Roberts American Gourmet. It was filed in 2001. the sit is http://www.power_of_attorney.com/stupid_lawsuits_money_all.asp This web site says that in 2001 Roberts was a subsidiary of Keystone Foods . Where were veggie booty products manufactured?