On Friday, March 16, Menu Foods, a contract manufacturer of wet pet foods, announced that it was recalling millions of containers (cans and foil pouches) of wet dog food and cat food. The company said the recalled products were made between December 3 and March 6 for dozens of different pet food companies and sold under more than 50 brand names. The recall was prompted by reports of the deaths of at least 10 dogs and cats, as well as reports of dozens more animals who suffered acute kidney failure after eating the implicated products. The foods were sold in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and sold by major retailers including Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Safeway.

A complete list of the recalled products, along with product codes, descriptions, and production codes, is available from the Menu Foods website at www.menufoods.com/recall or by calling the company at (866) 895-2708. Check the list often; at the time of release of this message, Menu Foods had added more products to the recall list at least twice since its initial release.

Also, several foods that (as of the release of this message) are NOT on the recall list but were manufactured by Menu are being recalled by their companies. Most notable are five Science Diet wet cat foods.

Menu said in a statement that tests of its food had "failed to identify any issues with the products in question." However, Sarah Tuite, a spokeswoman for Menu Foods, told the New York Times that Menu did associate the timing of the reported deaths with its use of a new supplier for wheat gluten (in our opinion, a low-quality source of protein). The company has since switched back to its former source for wheat gluten.

Most of the products on the recall list are inexpensive "store brands," made for grocery store retail outlets under a variety of names. The major exceptions to this are Iams and Eukanuba, products recognized by most pet owners due to their healthy market share, heavy marketing, and pervasive presence in almost every pet supply chain.

So far, only two foods that have made an appearance on a WDJ "top foods" list have also appeared on the recall list: Nutro's Ultra and Nutro Natural Choice. The Nutro product featured in the 2007 list of "top wet foods," "Nutro Natural Choice Chicken, Rice, and Oatmeal" variety, does not contain wheat gluten and is not on the recall list. However, the Nutro product highlighted on WDJ's 2006 list, Nutro's Ultra Holistic, does contain wheat gluten and is on the recall list.

Owners who fed any of the recalled products in the past three months should be alert for signs of kidney failure in their pets: extreme lethargy, a sudden change in the amount the animal drinks or urinates, jaundice (indicated by the yellowing of the animal's skin and/or whites of eyes), inappetence, and vomiting. As always, if your pet suddenly declines to eat a food he or she has previously enjoyed, cease feeding the product and call the manufacturer with the product date code for more information. Always contact your veterinarian promptly if your animal shows signs of illness.

Thank you,
The Whole Dog Journal Team