I need your help with preparing a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. I need information on
every pet food recall since 2000 that you're aware of. Why? This committee, Stupak, Dingell, are considering
evidence for giving the FDA mandatory recall power, and I want to be sure pet food is included. So help me
by giving dates, company, and links to pet food recall dates since 2000 that you're aware of, and thank you very much.

If you read the list of the 49 food companies that are included here, you will recognize the names of many pet food
companies. If you read the list of 313 food recalls, you will see pet food is not included. Please help me to compose
this letter with your knowledge and assistance.
 
http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_110/110nr258.shtml
NEWS RELEASE
Committee on Energy and Commerce
Rep. John D. Dingell, Chairman

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Immediate Release: May 8, 2008
Contact: Jodi Seth or Brin Frazier / 202-225-5735

 

Dingell, Stupak ask Multinational
Food Processors about Contamination
Reps. John D. Dingell (D-MI), Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce and Bart Stupak, Chairman of its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, sent a letter of inquiry today to 49 large food processing firms regarding their history of recalls, food safety alerts and all instances of known chemical or microbiological contamination of their products since January 1, 2000. These requests are part of an effort by the Committee to determine the source of safety threats to the American food supply.

“We are asking the largest food providers how often they have identified contamination by chemicals such as mercury and microorganisms such as E. coli and salmonella during their quality control testing procedures,” said Dingell. “We know from the Peter Pan peanut butter case and others that internal testing by food processors often fails to detect contaminants. Now we want to know what exactly is reported to the FDA or state public health authorities when companies actually find dangerous chemicals and bacteria in our food.”

Last week the Committee sent letters to private testing labs to determine the extent of adulterated imported food. This food may have found its way to American grocery stores as a result of food import firms hiding from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lab results that show food to be unsafe. The Committee has been conducting an intensive investigation of the safety of the food supply that has resulted in six congressional hearings and has involved the gathering of information from both the FDA and private firms.

“Food processors have, for the most part, avoided the kind of regulation and inspections that are imposed on drug and medical device manufacturers,” said Stupak. “We intend to determine exactly how rigorous these large multinational corporations have been in protecting the health of the American consumers.” He continued, “The FDA has failed to protect Americans from food poisoning and we have all witnessed the cascade of recalls and outbreaks of food-borne illnesses that resulted. Our investigation has examined many of these breakdowns in the food safety net. Now it is time to determine if the owners of the largest brand names on supermarket shelves have been forthcoming with the American people about the safety of their products.”

“Americans are rightly concerned that the food they feed their families may not always be safe,” said Dingell. “Our investigation has clearly established that the FDA lacks the leadership and the resources to keep bad food off our grocery shelves and dinning room tables.”

Attached is a list of the 313 food recalls that have occurred over the past 16 months according to the FDA and company released notices.
 

Prepared by the Committee on Energy and Commerce
2125 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515

49 food companies to which letters were sent:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_110/110-ltr.050808.50cos.FoodSafety.pdf

link to 313 food recalls:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_110/050808.RecallLists.pdf

 

Mandatory recall authority given to the FDA in one area would certainly be a goal we all need to achieve
for better consumer safety on food products I believe, Arlo. So if it happens, it would be an improvement
in my opinion. I have trouble with the FDA site, too. That's why I'm asking for help, so as not to miss
anything.

this website has some good info to start with. never saw it before today.

http://www.petfoodfreebies.com/petrecalls.html

Don't forget the botulism recall from Castleberry: http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01670.html.

Definitely pointed out some ones I missed. Thank you all so very much. Menusux, I am searching for the jerky treats posts, but
if you have it all collected and can post, would love you as always.

Don, if it's been every three months, there's a ways to go. Do you have a research link handy for that in your collection of
information? Would sure like to point that out in this letter, and thank you.

It's a painful and heartbreaking history for this consumer and for all the kids affected, that's for sure.

Both sad and funny that it takes so long for Congress to deal with the obvious when it comes
to food safety, I agree. Had no trouble passing the bills to adopt free trade in food and food related
imports without a safety system for the consuming public, though.

I think the underfunding and understaffing for FDA, CVM, CPSC, FSIS, USFDA is kind of the
result of intentional design on the part of industry through a lot of lobbying, too . After all, if
you're going to cut corners and produce less safe product with questionable ingredients, you don't want
strong regulators. Isyourpetfoodsafe, we all looked at the Science and Technology report from inside FDA in 2007 
commenting on the lack of equipment and inability to keep up with current science and understaffing.
But it doesn't hurt to be reminded of some of the problems. So thank you, and welcome to Itchmo.
Feel free to join in and write to the House Energy committee trying to get evidence that the FDA needs
more authority to act, and better funding and staffing, and better equipment.

Look what popped up at FSIS regarding performance and pay. It surprised me:

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/NR_053008_01/index.asp
FSIS to Host OPM Public Meeting to Discuss Proposed Pay-For-Performance System Demonstration Project
Meeting information and other related documents are available on the FSIS Web site at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/
Meetings_&_Events/index.asp.