(March 24, 2007)—Menu Foods has updated and expanded its recall of potentially tainted pet food as the company tries to determine how rat poison got into its supply chain.

Menu Foods, in response to media reports that some lots of the recalled pet food remained on store shelves, has asked all retail outlets to remove all impacted brands regardless of the date code, the Food and Drug Admiinistration said.

Items not actually listed on the recall pose no known risk, the FDA said, but “an abundance of caution is called for in this situation.”

Scientists said Friday they found the rat poison Aminopterin in samples of pet food linked to the deaths of at least 15 cats and a dog.

Government investigators don't know yet how it got there.

In addition to the 16 confirmed pet deaths, reports from veterinarians and pet owners indicate there could be more.

Veterinarians are advising anxious pet owners whose animals may have consumed the food to watch for such symptoms of kidney failure as loss of appetite, lethargy and vomiting.

No criminal investigation has begun although one chemist speculates that the substance wouldn't be in the food "unless someone put it there."

Producer Menu Foods expanded its recall to all 95 brands of the "cuts and gravy" style food regardless of when the product was manufactured.

The recall involves tens of millions of cans and pouches.

The Food and Drug Administration said the investigation is focusing on the possibility that wheat gluten used in the food was contaminated.

Menu Foods says it doesn't think there was tampering during the manufacturing process because the pet food came from two different plants, one in Kansas, the other in New Jersey.

"Our immediate next steps will be to begin testing of all suspect raw materials with the goal of quickly identifying the means through which this substance entered our supply chain," Paul K. Henderson, president and CEO of Menu Foods, told a news conference Friday.

Menu Foods Pet Food Recall Links

Information For Pet Owners From The American Veterinary Medical Association

Cat Food Recall Details

Dog Food Recall Details

Menu Foods Recall Web Site

Information On Purina Recall

Information On Hill’s Recalls

Information On P&G Pet Care Recalls

IAMS Information

FDA Web Site

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