The Pet Food Institute Releases Pet Food Facts

WASHINGTON, April 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pet Food Institute, the trade group representing companies that supply more than 90 percent of the pet food on store shelves today, issued the following facts about the current concerns over pet food following the deaths of 16 pets.

The FDA and the Pet Food Industry Are Working Together to Protect Pet Owners

  -- The pet food industry and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have
     worked closely together since the very first reports occurred about
     possible adulteration in pet foods. The industry-government partnership
     continues as investigators seek to determine the exact cause of the
     adulteration and work to ensure that it never happens again.

  -- Because FDA had key information from the industry about the
     manufacturing process, including lot numbers, shipping dates and
     ingredients, FDA was able to narrow its search and determine the source
     of adulteration. Now investigators are trying to determine how the
     adulteration could have occurred.

  -- It is imperative not just that we determine what is sickening and
     killing pets but also how this adulterant entered the pet food supply.
     That is why the ongoing process is so deliberate and painstaking. While
     the FDA confirms only 16 pets have died as the result of ingesting the
     adulterant, if only one pet dies, then it's one death too many.

  What We Know About the Source of the Current Pet Food Recall

  -- The FDA has identified Melamine, a plastic derivative used as
     fertilizer, as the probable adulterant responsible for the pet food
     recall. Further, the FDA has identified the source as the Xuzhou Anying
     Biologic Technology Development Co., a Chinese manufacturer whose wheat
     gluten tested positive for melamine. Products from that company have
     now been blocked for U.S. import by the FDA.

  -- Melamine is not used in any way shape or form in pet food manufacturing
     and the pet food industry had never seen it before. The substance is
     completely foreign to the process and shouldn't have been found on
     wheat gluten.

  -- Now that the FDA and the pet food industry have experienced this event,
     we will know what to look for and how to test for this adulterant in
     the future.

  More Than 99 Percent of Pet Food Remains Unaffected

  -- It's important to remember that more than 99 percent of pet food has
     been unaffected by the voluntary recalls by pet food companies. In
     fact, consumers can buy with confidence the pet food that is for sale
     on shelves today.

  -- While episodes like the one we have just gone through sometimes occur,
     they are extremely rare and the pet food industry and FDA regulators
     are doing everything humanly possible to ensure that it doesn't happen
     again.

The Pet Food Institute, the trade group representing companies that supply more than 90 percent of the pet food on store shelves today, is a clearinghouse for information about the current recall. To stay updated on the recall and link to the web sites of companies that have been affected, consumers are encouraged to visit PFI's web site at http://www.petfoodinstitute.org/. Information is also available at the FDA's web site, http://www.fda.gov/.