Tainted dog food suspected in China
A Shanghai distributor of a popular brand of dog food said Monday it had suspended sales of the product following reports that dogs who ate it died from poisoning.
While China’s recent food safety scandals have centered on locally made products, it wasn’t immediately clear whether the suspicious dog food was local or imported, the Associated Press reported.
A customer service manager at Shanghai Yidi Pet Co. said the company stopped selling Optima brand dog food last week after reports that more than a dozen dogs who ate it had died from aflatoxin poisoning.
A report Monday in the Shanghai Daily newspaper said at least 20 dogs in four Chinese cities, including Beijing, had died since the end of November from liver complications from aflatoxin.
It wasn’t clear who makes the Optima brand involved in the complaints.
An Optima brand of pet food is made by Doane International Pet Products LLC, based in Brentwood, Tenn. Mars Inc. acquired the Brentwood-based Doane Pet Care Enterprises Inc. in 2006, according to the Associated Press story.
U.S.-based Mars Inc., the maker of several pet foods, denied involvement Monday but said it was investigating the reports from China.
“To the best of its current knowledge, the Optima-branded pet food which appears to have caused these reported incidents in the People’s Republic of China was not manufactured by, or under the authority of, Mars or any of its affiliated companies,” the company said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.
The statement from Mars didn’t say whether its Optima brand is sold in China, and a spokesman didn’t immediately answer a request for more information.
A Canadian living in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou, who publicized the issue on his blog, told the Associated Press that he thought he had been buying imported pet food.
“When it’s an imported dog food, you don’t expect this sort of thing to happen,” said Ryan McLaughlin, who said his 1-year-old golden retriever, Addie, fell sick and died Jan. 5 after eating Optima.
Some Chinese media reports said the dog food might have spoiled in storage before reaching retail shops. Aflatoxin can cause severe liver damage.
Posted by jwoestendiek January 13th, 2009 under Muttsblog.
Tags: aflatoxin, brand, china, chinese, death, died, dog food, food, ill, liver, optima, safety, shanghai, tainted
