NESTLE PURINA’S NEW $10M PET FOOD PLANT … IN CHINA 04/02/07
In view of the damning evidence the Menu Foods recall has dredged up regarding food imports from China, it is disturbing to learn that just last month Nestle Purina opened up a new, multi-million dollar pet food manufacturing plant in China.
“Swiss-based Nestle S.A’s pet food plant in Tianjin Municipality in north China began operating on Friday.
Nestle invested 80 million yuan (10.26 million U.S. dollars) in the plant and it has an annual production ability of 20,000 tons. It is the company’s first pet food plant in China.
The plant will use local-purchased raw materials including bean, corn and wheat. Its products will be sold in supermarkets, pet clinics and pet shops.”
Considering how poorly regulated foodstuffs from China are, it is shocking to imagine Nestle Purina pumping out 20,000 tons of potentially poisonous or otherwise adulterated pet food. How many dogs and cats — beyond the thousands reported in the Menu Foods scandal — will suffer or die as a result of Nestle Purina’s China production plant and use of “local-purchased raw materials”?
In light of the news that the tainted wheat gluten was a product of China, one U.S. pet food company, Natura, released a video statement by their CEO promising that Natura will no longer use raw materials from China in their formulas. Another company, Fromme Family Foods, whose wet food is manufactured in China, offered the following explanation as to why they chose a production plant in China:
“It is not cheaper to make our product in China. The reality is it is not possible for us to make our product in the USA. We searched for a plant for 2 years before we looked outside of the country.
Our canned products are made in a human food plant which means every single ingredient allowed in the vicinity of the plant must be certified for human consumption.”
The problem that Howl 911 has with the above statement is the “certified for human consumption” — as if this is supposed to be reassuring. It is not, not when one considers that the tainted wheat gluten which may be responsible for so many pets’ deaths was certified as “food grade,” i.e., for human consumption. Moreover, the Australian report which Howl 911 referenced in an earlier posting, pointed out many instances of tainted foods and other quality issues concerning foods imported from China — all of which were intended for human consumption. And, yet, in spite of China’s horrendous record of food safety, Nestle Purina has forged ahead with their $10 Million pet food plant, knowingly subjecting millions of unsuspecting pets to any number of potentially lethal toxins.
Both Natura and Fromme’s Family Foods have made statements regarding the lack of acceptable production facilities available for pet food manufacturing. Natura contracted with Menu Foods because of lack of choices, while Fromme Family Foods elected to outsource to China. It begs the question, then, if Menu Foods, the major manufacturer of wet foods in North America, is no longer an option, who is left? I suspect that Nestle Purina will be a likely choice for those pet food companies who choose to terminate their relationship with Menu Foods. So for pet food companies in search of a manufacturer, It may well be a choice of the lesser of two evils: Menu Foods or Nestle Purina.
Postscript to our readers from down under: Nestle Purina recently (Nov. 2006) purchased the Australian pet food company, Green’s Foods. Let the buyer beware.
Filed under: 2007 Pet Food Recall