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Limited resources
It's been nearly a week since Canadian pet-food manufacturer Menu Foods Inc. recalled some 60 million cans and pouches of wet food linked to the deaths of at least 15 cats and one dog, yet authorities still can't explain exactly what went wrong. Some critics and animal lovers are honing in on what they see as lax regulation of the $15 billion pet-food industry in the United States.
There's almost a void there, says Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Product Manufacturers Association. There is no real pet-food department of any federal agency.
Technically, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for ensuring that pet foods, like human foods, are safe to eat, truthfully labeled and produced under sanitary conditions. But on Tuesday, FDA officials admitted that the regulation of pet food takes a back seat to its regulatory obligations of other food and drug sectors, and that inspections of pet-food processing plants are done only on a for-cause basis.
There are limited resources, said David Elder, director of the Office of Surveillance and Compliance in the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine in Rockville, Md. Elder added that inspections of companion animals-food products are based on risk , which means that the processing plant in Emporia, Kans., where the tainted food was manufactured, had never been inspected by government officials until after consumers started complaining about pets dying of kidney failure. The Emporia plant remains open and continues to produce new food, according to a Menu Foods spokesperson, who adds that safety tests are being done around the clock.
The chief executive of Menu Foods told the Associated Press on Wednesday that the company is looking at one unnamed ingredient as the possible cause of the renal failure. The FDA has previously said the investigation is focusing on possibly contaminated wheat gluten, a common ingredient in pet foods. FDA inspectors have been sent to Menu Foods plants in Kansas and New Jersey.
The industry insists their products are absolutely safe.Pet foods are the highest regulated product you'll find in the grocery store, says Duane Ekedahl, president of the Pet Food Institute (PFI), an industry trade association representing the interests of 20 member companies whose products make up about 97 percent of the dog and cat food produced in the United States.
While serious, the Menu Foods recall shouldn't be blown out of proportion, says Ekedahl, who points out that the recalled food accounts for less then 2 percent of the overall market. He adds that every pet-food company conducts extensive tests, both of incoming raw materials and of finished products. On Tuesday, PFI issued a statement claiming that All cat and dog food products on store shelves are safe. The recall is now complete and all suspected products have been removed from the stream of commerce.
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有限的资源
加拿大宠物食品生产商Menu Foods公司，因为至少有15只猫和1只狗死亡，而召回与此有关系的0.6亿罐和袋装湿粮已经近一个周，但是当局仍旧不能准确说明哪里出了问题。一些批评家和喜爱动物的人愤愤不平，他们认为在于美国对150亿美元的宠物食品行业疏于管理。
Bob Vetere是美国宠物商品生产者协会的主席，他说：几乎有一个空白，没有一个真正的联邦机构的宠物食品监管部门。
从技术上而言，美国食品与药品管理局（FDA）对宠物食品负责，确保它们要像人类食品一样，要能安全食用，如实地贴上标签，并且要在卫生的条件下被生产出来。但是在星期二，FDA官员承认，相对于其他食品和药品的管理，对宠物食品的管理处于一个次要的地位，而且对宠物食品加工厂的检查只是停留在表面上。
大卫•爱尔德是位于罗克维尔的FDA动物医药中心。他说，资源是有限的，并且对人类的伙伴即动物的食品检查是不安全的。这就意味着，大量生产腐坏食品的位于堪萨斯恩波里亚的加工厂从来就没有接受过政府官员的检查，直到消费者开始抱怨他们的宠物是死于肾衰竭时，才接受检查。据Menu 食品公司发言人介绍，这家位于恩波里亚的工厂仍在营业并且继续生产新的食品，同时安全检查也正夜以继日地进行着。
在星期三，Menu 食品公司首席执行官告知美联社，他们公司正将一种不知名的食品配料当做动物肾衰竭的可能原因。FDA先前也说过，这项调查正集中在可能被污染的麦麸上，麦麸是宠物食品中一种普通的配料。FDA检察官已经被派往位于堪萨斯州和新泽西州的Menu 食品公司工厂。
宠物食品行业坚持认为他们的产品是绝对安全的。宠物食品是你能在杂货店里找到的管理最严格的产品，宠物食品协会（PTF）主席Duane Ekedahl说。PTF是一个行业贸易协会，代表了20个成员公司的利益，这些公司的产品占美国生产的宠物食品的97%。尽管Ekedahl严肃地说，Menu Foods Inc公司召回的产品不应该被夸大，因为它占到了整个市场不到2%的份额。他补充说，每一个宠物食品公司都经过了广泛的测试，不仅包括对原材料的测试也包括对成品的测试。在星期二，PFI发表了一份声明，宣称商店货架上所有的猫狗食品都是安全的。召回行动已经完成而且所有疑有问题的产品都已经从商品市场上撤掉了。
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