US, Chinese firms charged in tainted pet food incidents

ChemNutra Inc. owners Stephen S. Miller and his wife were charged in the tainted pet food incidents yesterday. (John Locher/Las Vegas Review-Journal vice Associated Press/File 2007)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Two Chinese firms and a US company were indicted yesterday in the tainted pet food incidents that killed dozens of animals in the United States last year and raised worries about products made in China.

Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co.; Suzhou Textiles, Silk, Light Industrial Products, Arts and Crafts I/E Co.; and Las Vegas-based ChemNutra Inc. were charged in two separate but related indictments. The US attorney's office in Kansas City, Mo., said the tainted food led to the death and serious illness of pets in the United States last year.

One of the indictments charges the two Chinese companies with 13 counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce and 13 counts of introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce.

ChemNutra and company owners Sally Quing Miller, a Chinese national, and her husband, Stephen S. Miller, were charged with 13 counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce, 13 counts of introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce, and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The indictments allege Suzhou Textiles, an export broker, mislabeled 800 metric tons of wheat gluten tainted with the toxic chemical melamine to avoid inspection in China. Xuzhou did not properly declare the contaminated product it shipped to the United States as a material to be used in food, the indictment says. According to the indictment, ChemNutra picked up the melamine-tainted product at a port of entry in Kansas City, then sold it to makers of various brands of pet foods. The indictment alleges that the melamine was added to make the gluten meet the required standard for protein content specified in the contract between Suzhou and ChemNutra.

ChemNutra did not return a call seeking comment.