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Itchmo Forums for Cats & Dogs > General Pet Information > Law and Politics About Pets > Attention Please: Made in USA?
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Author Topic: Attention Please: Made in USA?  (Read 720 times)
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Steve
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« on: May 08, 2007, 07:58:36 AM »
Chinese products in pet food labeled “Made in USA?” File a complaint with the FTC.

May 6, 2007 at 5:06 pm · Filed under melamine, iams, pet food industry, imported food, food saftey, pet food recall, menu foods, recall, FDA, Hill's, procter and gamble, pet food, FTC

Here are excerpts from The Federal Trade Commission’s Complying with the Made In the USA Standard.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/madeusa.shtm
(Information on how to file a compliant with the FTC and other suggestions are at the bottom.)

For a product to be called Made in USA, or claimed to be of domestic origin without qualifications or limits on the claim, the product must be “all or virtually all” made in the U.S. “All or virtually all” means that all significant parts and processing that go into the product must be of U.S. origin. That is, the product should contain no — or negligible — foreign content.

    [David Acheson, FDA’s new Assistant Commissioner for Food Protection, said the amount of wheat gluten or rice protein in pet food is about 5 to 10 percent. Moist pet food is at least 75% water.]
http://news.tradingcharts.com/futures/3/0/92826903.html

The product’s final assembly or processing must take place in the U.S. The Commission then considers other factors, including how much of the product’s total manufacturing costs can be assigned to U.S. parts and processing, and how far removed any foreign content is from the finished product.

    [Wheat gluten and rice protean concentrate are listed on pet food labels as an ingredient by themselves without additional processing.]

In some instances, only a small portion of the total manufacturing costs are attributable to foreign processing, but that processing represents a significant amount of the product’s overall processing… In these cases, the foreign content (processing or parts) is more than negligible, and, as a result, unqualified claims are inappropriate.

To determine the percentage of U.S. content, manufacturers and marketers should look back far enough in the manufacturing process to be reasonably sure that any significant foreign content has been included in their assessment of foreign costs.

What To Do About Violations

Information about possible illegal activity helps law enforcement officials target companies whose practices warrant scrutiny. If you suspect noncompliance, contact the Division of Enforcement, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC 20580; (202) 326-2996 or send an e-mail to MUSA@ftc.gov. (File a c complaint)
https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01

If you know about import or export fraud, call Customs’ toll-free Commercial Fraud Hotline, 1-800-ITS-FAKE. Examples of fraudulent practices involving imports include removing a required foreign origin label before the product is delivered to the ultimate purchaser (with or without the improper substitution of a Made in USA label) and failing to label a product with a required country of origin.

You also can contact your state Attorney General and your local Better Business Bureau to report a company.

Or you can refer your complaint to the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus by calling (212) 754-1320. NAD handles complaints about the truth and accuracy of national advertising. You can reach the Council of Better Business Bureaus on the web at adweb.com/adassoc17.html.

Finally, the Lanham Act gives any person (such as a competitor) who is damaged by a false designation of origin the right to sue the party making the false claim. Consult a lawyer to see if this private right of action is an appropriate course of action for you.

To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261.The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm
http://www.consumer.gov/sentinel/
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Steve
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« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2007, 08:58:13 AM »
May 7, 2007

Letter to Food Manufacturers Regarding Legal Responsibilities for the Safety of Food Ingredients

Dear Food Manufacturers:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking this opportunity to remind food manufacturers of their legal responsibility to ensure that all ingredients used in their products are safe for human consumption. In view of the recent recalls of various pet foods due to the presence of wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate contaminated with melamine, and information revealing that some of this contaminated pet food may have been mixed with feed for pigs and poultry meant for human consumption, manufacturers are encouraged to make sure they have procedures in place that ensure the safety of the ingredients in their products, as well as the safety of the packaging and processing supplies they use. Manufacturers should also verify that their suppliers have such procedures in place. Advice on how to ensure that food ingredients and food products are safe for human consumption can be found at www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/alert.html.

FDA issued a protein ingredient surveillance assignment on May 1, 2007. As part of this assignment, FDA, in conjunction with state regulatory authorities, will be performing inspections of various food and feed facilities and collecting and testing for the presence of melamine a variety of protein ingredients, and finished products containing such ingredients, commonly found in the U.S. food and feed supplies. FDA has initiated this assignment to help ensure the safety of the U.S. food and feed supplies. The assignment will supplement melamine testing already conducted by FDA. The protein concentrates being tested include wheat gluten, corn gluten, corn meal, soy protein, and rice protein concentrate. Over the next few weeks, the assignment may expand in size and scope to include additional types of protein concentrates and finished products.

During inspections of manufacturing facilities conducted as part of this assignment, FDA will reiterate to the food and feed industry the importance of assuring the safety and security of their ingredients and products by knowing their manufacturing and packaging operators, ingredient suppliers, contract manufacturers and sources for all incoming materials. FDA will collect samples primarily during inspections of domestic food manufacturers or, in the case of imports, at the point of entry. The samples will be analyzed at a variety of laboratories that are part of the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN).

Manufacturers are responsible for taking their own measures to ensure the safety of their products. Manufacturers should not wait for possible FDA testing of their materials as manufacturers bear the responsibility of ensuring only safe products are put on the market. For those companies interested in performing their own tests for melamine, the methodology used by the FERN laboratories can be found at www.fda.gov/cvm/MelaminePresence.htm.

Sincerely,
Robert E. Brackett, Ph.D.
Director
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition    
Stephen F. Sundlof, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Director

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/protltr.html
Center for Veterinary Medicine
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