Menu Food President, Paul Henderson spoke to employees at their annual meeting on June 29. Here are a few excerpts…
As pet owners ourselves, we have been saddened by the events of the last four months – what the Pet Food Institute and the National Pet Food Commission are calling the “M.A.R.C.” recall, which stands for ‘Melamine and Related Compounds’.
We welcome the opportunity to inform you – as fully as we can – about this, and the initiatives we are now taking to regain consumer trust and restore Menu Foods to profitability and growth.
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Recognize that for several weeks, there was conflicting information about whether a problem even existed…let alone what the source of that problem might be.
Nevertheless, even in the face of inconclusive data, we acted.
We demonstrated our responsibility to our customers, the pet food industry and pet owners, by acting with diligence and speed.
We devoted our technical resources to finding out what was going on.
In fact, even before contaminated wheat gluten was identified as the possible source of the problems, we suspended its use out of an abundance of caution.
And once the problems wree identified, we recalled the products we believed were affected.
In fact – and I will emphasize this – Menu Foods’ first recall was more than two weeks before any other manufacturer initiated their recall.More than anything, this is evidence of our commitment to the safety and quality of our products, to our customers and to the pet owners they serve.
Menu Foods may have been ahead of other manufacturers in recalling the tainted food, but why did they wait so long to recall their foods in the first place? As we all know, they knew there was an issue long before they issued any recalls.
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We are working with the FDA, Pet Food Institute, veterinarians, food safety experts and our customers to resume our business of providing healthy and safe pet food. We take pride in our products, and we take responsibility for them. We have implemented new procedures and processes that will help reinforce the confidence in Menu Foods shown by our customers over the years.
Henderson says people had confidence in Menu Foods before the recall. As we’ve all learned though, many, many people had no idea who Menu Foods was nor did they know Menu Foods was the manufacturer of their favorite brands. So it’s not actually Menu Foods they had confidence in, it was the private labels that Menu Foods manufactured for. Because of the recalls, people have lost confidence in the the brands they used to feed their pets, and now that they know who Menu Foods is, they don’t think much of them either.
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I do not care who Menu foods is or who any other manufacturer of pet products is…what I do care about is the safety of the ingredients used. Under no circumstance should any food processor use any imported food from China in the process from this point forward. Menu and others where dupped just like all we were….no one did their job and all testing standards are sub standard here in the USA and in China. China is at fault and has been at fault for many many years. His statement tells it all…we have all eaten melamine at one time or another and it is in everything processed that used any of these glutens from China. He said…..No one has ever tested for melamine!….get the big picture! Every day dialysis clinics are being built all over America…..open your eyes and protect your food supplies now…ban all imports of processed foods from China!
Obewan