Tainted Pet Food… Tainted Human Food?

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I was wondering when this was going to be brought up. In the course of the pet food recall, there were a few people asking what would happen if a person ate the tainted pet food. The most well-known story involved the Ottawa woman who tried to trick her new dog into eating his food by taking a bite herself and subsequently becoming ill. Other people were asking what would happen if a kid decided to try what Fido was eating.

Well, we may not need to wonder for much longer. The FDA has blocked all wheat gluten imports from the company responsible for shipping the tainted food product, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development. Worse, the tainted wheat gluten has been traced to food processing plants that prepare food for humans. This makes sense that it would have happened, and I’m a bit flummoxed that they haven’t been able to track it down sooner. A large importer usually doesn’t import for just one company; they’ll load up a ship and portion it out to their clients on the other end, so one contaminated shipment could potentially affect hundreds of different products.

Yet another reason to read food labels and buy local.

As far as the pet food recall situation goes, the FDA has a page listing all of the tainted-gluten recalled foods and treats for easy reference. I’d suggest bookmarking this if you have questions about what hasn’t been recalled. (It’s becoming a process of elimination now.)

Oh, and Eight in One is recalled a bunch of dog, cat and ferret treats too due to salmonella contamination. Although their recall isn’t due to the wheat gluten problem, I see that the Associated Press still spent more than half the article talking about that other story. Bad luck/timing on Eight in One’s part, and sloppy, misleading journalism on the part of the AP.

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Filed under Food News, Food Safety, Pets, Recalls