Investigators: Tainted pet food fed to hogs
WASHINGTON — Hogs fed pet food rejected as unsuitable for sale ended up eating a product laced with an industrial chemical, federal authorities said yesterday, expanding a food safety investigation that had been primarily focused on cats and dogs.
It remains unclear, however, whether products made from the hogs will be considered safe for human consumption.
Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, said the FDA will work with the United States Department of Agriculture ‘‘to determine whether or not those animals can go into the food supply. That’s a process that is still ongoing. We should know the answer to that in a short period of time.’’
At least two US companies imported protein-based ingredients from Chinese suppliers that were tainted with melamine, a chemical used to make fertilizers and plastics. Since mid-March, manufacturers have pulled more than 100 brands of pet food from store shelves in a recall that this week grew to include rice protein concentrate imported from China that also was tainted with melamine.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government continues to block federal investigators from visiting the country to confirm the source of melamine.
Even though reporters were able to quickly travel to China and determine that at least one supplier there openly shopped for melamine to artificially boost the protein content of its wheat gluten, FDA investigators still lack visas needed to inspect Chinese plants.
In addition to wheat gluten and rice-protein concentrate that the FDA confirmed contained melamine, the agency has been alerted to a third protein-based ingredient — corn gluten — that also included melamine and was shipped from China to South Africa. For now, there is no indication the corn gluten was sent to the United States, Sundlof said.
The current theory is that Chinese suppliers intentionally added melamine to ingredients that were low in protein to ensure they would test high enough to allow them to be labeled as protein supplements and command the prices of wheat gluten, rice-protein concentrate, or corn gluten.
‘‘It adds to the theory when you see other products that are labeled as protein supplements,’’ he said. ‘‘That melamine was found in all three of those, it would certainly lend credibility to the theory that this was intentional.’’
Members of Congress, pointing to $2.1 billion in agricultural products American companies imported last year from Chinese suppliers, are pressuring the Chinese government to cooperate with the FDA.
‘‘We strongly urge the Chinese government to quickly issue visas to US inspectors,’’ wrote Rosa L. DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, and Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois. ‘‘Clearly, this is an important trading relationship.’’
In the meantime, the FDA said it has begun to more closely scrutinize rice protein concentrate and other imported pet food ingredients, which it declined to name.
But confusion persists for consumers as incremental recalls continue.
After a single bag of rice-protein concentrate imported by Wilbur-Ellis Co. tested positive for melamine, the San Francisco company said it quarantined the entire shipment. Since July, Wilbur-Ellis purchased 740,753 pounds of the rice protein concentrate from Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. It shipped 341,716 pounds to five pet food manufacturers in Kansas, Missouri, New York, and Utah.
This week, Natural Balance of California recalled venison-based pet products containing rice protein laced with melamine.
The FDA declined to name other firms until, in the midst of its briefing with reporters, the Blue Buffalo Co. of Connecticut said it was recalling a production run of Spa Select Kitten dry food made with contaminated rice-protein concentrate.
The FDA has fielded 15,000 complaints from pet owners since the pet food recall began. Outside researchers estimate 39,000 pets were sickened and hundreds died.
Diedtra Henderson can be reached at dhenderson@globe.com. 