Tainted gluten not used in human food
None of the contaminated wheat gluten that led to the US recall of pet food went to manufacturers of food for humans, according to the ingredient’s importer.
The Chinese wheat gluten imported by ChemNutra Inc. all went to companies
that make pet foods, Stephen Miller, chief executive officer said. Miller
declined to identify what companies ChemNutra supplied. Nearly 100 brands of cat
and dog foods made with the ingredient, since found to be chemically
contaminated, have been recalled.
FDA testing of the wheat gluten has
revealed it was contaminated with melamine, a chemical with a variety of
industrial uses, including the manufacture of plastic kitchenware.
ChemNutra
said it has recalled 792 tonnes of wheat gluten that it shipped to three pet
food makers and a single distributor who in turn supplies the pet food industry.
The company said the recall applied only to wheat gluten from Xuzhou Anying, one
of its three Chinese suppliers of the ingredient.
The importer shipped
the product in 25-kilogram paper bags between Nov. 9 and March 8, when it
learned the ingredient was suspected as the cause of the pet food problems.
ChemNutra said it then quarantined its wheat gluten inventory. Each bag of wheat
gluten included content analysis and test results provided by Xuzhou Anying,
ChemNutra said.
“The company is particularly troubled that the
certificates of analysis provided by the above-named supplier did not report the
presence of melamine,” ChemNutra said in a statement.
Related
website:
ChemNutra
Inc.
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