Menu Foods has named this plant in Emporia, Kansas, as one of two where the poisoned food was produced.
EMPORIA, Kansas, March 23, 2007 – Menu Foods has named this plant in Emporia, Kansas, as one of two where the poisoned food was produced.
"We have no idea how this could have gotten into the food product."
A Menu Foods spokesperson says the Emporia plant will shut down for two or three days because the company needs to reorganize schedules to pull back old food products and prepare to make new ones.
"What about the future of Menu foods?" Paul Henderson, Menu Foods CEO, said. "We are a strong, sustainable business, and we are confident about our future."
This as Menu Foods executives say they will begin testing to track down the raw material responsible. The toxin is used to kill rats in other countries. It is only legal to use as a cancer drug here in the United States.
"There are any number of ways to contaminate food," Patrick Hooker, New York agriculture commissioner, said.
Wheat gluten has been suspected as the cause of the contamination. Today, Henderson confirmed they received the product from China, but said there is no way of knowing for sure where the poison came from.
"We have no scientific basis at this time to determine that is the ingredient that introduced this substance into our supply chain," Henderson said.
In all, 60-million cans and pouches of food were recalled. Henderson said he didn't know how many pets were killed or sickened as a result of eating the tainted food.
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