The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) today conducted a search of ChemNutra’s offices in Las Vegas, NV, as part of a misdemeanor investigation into whether the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act has been violated.

ChemNutra’s officers have been informed that, under the legal doctrine of “strict liability,” the company could be held accountable because it imported the melamine-adulterated wheat gluten that is one reason for the current pet food recalls, even though the company had no prior knowledge, or reason to believe, that its Chinese supplier had put melamine in the product.

Steve Miller, Chief Executive Officer of ChemNutra, said, “We have cooperated and complied fully with FDA investigators both prior to and since being served with today’s search warrant, and will continue to do so. We keep very good records, which has made it relatively easy for the investigators to retrieve what they needed.” He added that, “We also now believe that our wheat gluten customer, Menu Foods, used significantly more wheat gluten monthly than we supplied to them, so we hope that Menu Foods will disclose its other sources to the FDA to ensure that any suspect product is quarantined.

“We placed our wheat gluten in quarantine as soon as Menu Foods informed us that it might have contributed to pet illnesses about which Menu Foods had apparently been aware for some time. We can only hope that Menu Foods has taken steps to ensure that this situation will not be allowed to spread even farther because of its inaction.”

ChemNutra imports nutritional and pharmaceutical chemicals from China to the US. Our US customers are manufacturers of food, pet food, and nutritional ingredients. ChemNutra also imports ingredients that include amino acids, preservatives, nutritional minerals, proteins, flavor enhancers, and sweeteners.