Melamine Discovered in Recalled Pet Food

Shannon Weidemann

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A chemical found in ordinary kitchenware may be responsible for the kidney failure in cats and dogs that have eaten the recalled Menu Foods. The FDA announced today the results of their testing of the pet food and found melamine in the food and wheat gluten used to make the food. Melamine is used in Asia as a fertilizer and that is where the wheat gluten came from.

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday it found melamine in samples of the Menu Foods pet food involved in the original recall and in imported wheat gluten used as an ingredient in the company's wet-style products. Cornell University scientists also found melamine in the urine of sick cats, as well as in the kidney of one cat that died after eating some of the recalled food.

Most of the recall has focused on canned and foil packet "cuts and gravy" style food, but one dry food has been included in the recall today. It is Hill's Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food. No other Hill's dry food is being recalled at this time. The FDA did not find rat poison in the samples that they tested.