Archive for the ‘Melamine’ Category

On June 16,2009, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City announced that a Nevada company an its owners, Sally Qing Miller and her husband, Stephen Miller, and their company, Chemnutra, Inc. pleaded guilty to charges from a February 6, 2008 indictment. 

The indictments and now guilty pleas come after a 2007 dog and cat food recall that resulted in manufacturers recalling more than 150 brands of dog and cat food.  There is no coordinated national tracking system to monitor the number of pet deaths from the melamine contaminated pet food but the FDA suggests that approximately 1,950 cats and 2,200 dogs died after eating pet food contaminated with melamine.  Melamine is an unsafe food additive that is approved manufacturing purposes but has no approved use as an ingredient in human or pet foods in the United States.  Melamine more recently received extensive attention after melamine turned up in infant milk formula in China, causing the deaths of many children.  

The charges against the Millers centered around more than 800 metric tons of melamine tainted wheat gluten that the couple imported into the United States in 13 shipments from China.  The invoices for the contaminated gluten totaled nearly $850,000.  The couple received the melamine-tainted gluten in Kansas City, Missouri and then sold and shipped it to customers across the United States.  The Milers’ customers then used the gluten to manufacturer various brands of pet food. 

The Millers face upt to two years in jail and only up to $200,000 in fines.  ChemNutra faces only a fine of up to $400,000 but can also be ordered to pay restitution (assuming it has the ability to pay, which is doubtful).  Congratulations to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gene Porter and Joseph Marquez for sticking with prosecutions that have taken years and were undoubtedly not the most glamorous but definitely satisfy to pet owners whose pets died from the recall.