ChemNutra Owners Sentenced for Melamine Poisoning in Pets

In 2007, American company ChemNutra, Inc. was responsible for importing 800 tons of melamine-tainted wheat gluten from China. The poisoned wheat gluten was then purchased by Menu Foods and later added to major pet food brands, causing thousands of dogs and cats to die and/or fall ill from renal failure or disease. The FDA estimates that over 4,000 dogs and cats died as a result of eating the tainted food.

Today, Sally and Steven Miller, the owners of ChemNutra, Inc., were sentenced for their role in this tragedy. They were each fined $5,000 and given 3 years of probation, while the company itself (ChemNutra, Inc.) received a $25,000 fine. But has justice been served? The New York Times reported in a 2008 article that a, "federal indictment, citing e-mail traffic between the Chinese manufacturer and the American importer, says that the importer of the tainted ingredient knew that it was being mislabeled to avoid inspection."

Melamine is a chemical used in glues, flame retardants, inks, tile, plastics, and other non-edible materials. Essentially, unethical Chinese manufacturers added the chemical to the wheat gluten as an inexpensive way to improve the protein content in order to increase their profits. In addition to the pet food-related tragedy, in 2008 a similar event occurred in China that affected humans. Melamine-tainted milk powder was added to baby formula resulting in the death of 6 babies, and caused hundreds of thousands of infants to become ill. Apparently, although melamine was banned in China as a food additive, one of the leading organizations responsible for testing food products lacked even the basic equipment necessary to test foods specifically for melamine contamination. Which begs the question, why were pet food manufacturers using ingredients sourced from a country that does not have the proper controls in place to assure consumer safety in the first place?

According to The New York Times, "China’s product safety agency requires that shipments of wheat gluten be inspected before export. To avoid inspection, Suzhou Textiles labeled the shipments with a code other than the one that would have indicated it was wheat gluten, according to the indictment. [ChemNutra] knew that the shipment was mislabeled in a way that would allow it to leave China without testing, the United States attorney’s office says, and the Millers did not disclose the mislabeling to pet food makers.The government cited e-mail messages sent or received by the Millers in 2006 in which the proper codes for wheat gluten and other proteins were discussed."

Unbelievably, the former owners of ChemNutra are back in the food ingredient importing business already--operating under a new company name, EOS Direct. John G. Edwards reports online that, "Stephen Miller continues in the business of importing pet food ingredients under eosdirect.com, but the Web site was taken down from the Internet on Wednesday morning after news coverage of the plea agreements. The site says it is under construction."

The company's LinkedIn profile states that, "EOS Direct is at the forefront of safeguarding the quality and safety of ingredients imported from select manufacturers in Asia." And under their contact settings it shows that they are interested in, "reference requests." Wonder who those are coming from.

So, what do you think: was the sentencing fair or was it a mistrial of justice? Should the Millers be back in the importing business?