REMARKS
BY
PAUL K.
HENDERSON
PRESIDENT
AND CEO, MENU FOODS INCOME FUND
TO A
NEWS CONFERENCE
MARCH
30, 2007
Ladies and gentlemen:
Thank you for your
attendance, and for your continuing dedication to this disturbing and emotional
story.
I am Paul Henderson,
President and CEO of Menu Foods. With me today is Randall Copeland, Executive Vice-President
of Sales and Marketing, and a thirty-year veteran of the pet food industry,
having spent a good portion of that time in plant operations.
This afternoon, I
have a brief opening statement and then we will take a limited number of
questions. For the sake of those listening in by phone, please do not begin
asking your question until you have a microphone in hand.
One week ago, some of
the dedicated researchers who had been investigating this matter reported the discovery
of a single, toxic compound in our pet food. That, seemingly, cleared the way
for us to address the problem, deal fairly with the pet-owners who had been
injured, put our business back together, and move on.
In the intervening
week, other top scientists have been unable to validate the findings. That is, they were unable to find the toxin –
called aminopterin – in our pet food, or in any of the component ingredients.
It was also brought to our attention that some veterinary experts held the view
that aminopterin was inconsistent with what was being observed in dogs and
cats.
There is an entirely
different story today.
As you heard earlier
from the FDA and
Melamine has been
found in the finished product that was the subject of recall and has not
been found in other Menu Foods pet food outside of the recall. Menu Foods only
manufactures wet pet food.
Melamine has been
found in the wheat gluten from a new supplier in the
The recalled product
is unfit for consumption by pets. It contains melamine.
The pet food that we
have manufactured after March 6 is safe and healthy. How do we know this?
First, it contains no
melamine. Secondly, it contains none of the suspect wheat gluten.
Thirdly,
all of the testing that has been conducted, including the routine taste tests
that were underway prior to the discovery of this problem, have demonstrated
that those products not associated with the suspect wheat gluten performed very
well and in a manner consistent with historic norms.
Menu Foods has been
in operation for more than 35 years. Our plants are modern, run by dedicated,
experienced and well-trained employees.
We operated with good manufacturing practices and are routinely audited
by well recognized, independent experts on food safety and sanitation. It’s
clear from our customer base that we must meet the most rigorous quality
standards in the industry in order to be allowed to produce these products for
some of the world’s largest brands. That
is how we have confidence in our abilities to produce quality products.
With all of these
quality standards, how did this happen?
Quite simply, one supplier’s product was adulterated with a material
that is not part of any known screening procedure for wheat gluten. The important point today is that the source
of the adulteration has been identified and removed from our system.
Needless to say, we
have a great deal of interest in finding out why we were supplied with this
kind of product. This is a subject of very great interest to us and our lawyers
and you can expect that we will be following up. For litigation purposes, we
cannot elaborate at this time.
Let me be clear on
this - we have removed that problem from our system. Our recall is well underway and products
produced today are being made with known, quality and tested raw materials.
As a result, I can
say with complete confidence today – to consumers, to our customers, to
governments – that Menu Foods continues to uphold the high standards for which
we have been known since 1971.
Our products are
safe. We continue to engage in the highest levels of monitoring and testing in
the pet food industry. These tests will be expanded as a result of this
experience.
A final word on
melamine. We have had correspondence with the FDA and we know that they are
diligently following-up on the supply of the suspect wheat gluten. It is not our place to name the supplier as
we do not want to interfere in any way with the important investigation they
are conducting.
What we know today is
that the products made by Menu Foods are of the highest quality, are safe, and
will be returning to store shelves across
Now, as we did last
time, I think we can anticipate some of your questions.
Does Menu have something it wants to say to any pet owners who have suffered a loss?
All of us at Menu Foods want to express our sympathy to
those people who have suffered with sickness and loss of pets.
We are pet-people and we have almost 1,000 caring employees who are dedicated to making food that is safe, nutritious and palatable.
We are proud of our employees and the hard work, loyalty
and diligence they have demonstrated in these trying times
We are angered that a source outside of the company has
apparently adulterated the product causing this regrettable loss.
We are grateful to our customers and retailers who have been so responsible in the quick removal of affected product from the market and ask their continued diligence to assure that affected product is not accidentally restocked in their systems.
What is your reaction to
the FDA’s Announcement earlier today?
We believe the announcement today by the FDA supports
the products and the procedures used by Menu Foods in the recall. We are pleased that they have acknowledged
that the nature of the adulteration could not have been identified by detection
methods used by the industry and by their acknowledgement that no violations
occurred.
One area that has made this recall particularly
confusing is that Menu Foods executed the recall before there was a known
scientific cause for the illness experienced by pets and with very few reported
incidents from the field. We believe
today’s press announcement by the FDA again supports our actions. The actions
we took out of an abundance of caution undoubtedly saved many lives.
The FDA has reported that the adulterant found in the
wheat gluten has only been found in wheat gluten from one specific supplier of
that ingredient. This is the ingredient
referenced in our recall announcement of March 16.
What is the
immediate priority for Menu Foods?
Our first priority is the recall. We have implemented procedures to work with
our retail customers to effectively clear all recalled product from the supply
chain before each customer can receive new products. These new products have ingredients that we
know are clear of the adulterant that was found in the single source of wheat
gluten.
In light of the FDA’s findings, what are Menu’s next steps
for getting back to business?
We look forward to returning to supplying safe,
palatable “cuts and gravy” product for consumers. Our traditional loaf products do not contain
any of the suspect ingredients and only two of Menu’s four plants have ever had
the suspect ingredient in use at any time.
All of our products produced after March 6 have been clear of the
suspect wheat gluten.
We are working with our partners to help make it easy for consumers to know that they are purchasing only products that are clear of the suspect wheat gluten, in order to ease their mind and provide assurance of safety.
I will now take
questions. Only those with a microphone may ask questions, so raise your hand
if you have a question.
Thank you.