By Judi McLeod
4/9/07
ChemNutra, the Las Vegas Nevada company confirmed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the distributor of the contaminant in nearly 100 brands of pet foods has offices in the Communist People's Republic of China.
And ChemNutra's Chinese office is within 50 miles of Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd., the company fingered as the one with the wheat gluten killing what veterinarian says are hundreds of North America's pets.
Even though self-touted as a $10-million-a-year operation, ChemNutra's Las Vegas office, at Durango and Charleston Streets is "very small" "without even a sign on the door", according to the enterprising reportage of the Las Vegas Review Journal.
ChemNutra's Chinese office is in "a rundown warehouse in rural China".
"FDA's examination of import records and records obtained during follow-up investigations identified the distributor of the contaminated wheat gluten as ChemNutra of Las Vegas, Nevada," said Stephen Sundlof, director of the agency's center for veterinary medicine.
ChemNutra imported wheat gluten from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd., the company only 50 miles away from its own Chinese headquarters.
"We have never exported to the U.S." we are a trading company. We don't even know how we became implicated in this matter," Maso Lijun, Xuzhou Anying's general manager said on Friday.
Sundlof admits that one theory being considered by the FDA is that the contaminants could have been added to the pet foods deliberately.
"Somebody may have added melamine to the wheat gluten in order to increase what appears to be the protein level," Sundlof said Friday. "Wheat gluten is a high-protein substance and by trying to artificially inflate the protein level, it could command a higher price. But that's just one theory at this point."
Since melamine is not very toxic as a chemical, FDA scientists are wondering why they are seeing the kinds of serious conditions, especially the kidney failure, that they're seeing in cats and dogs.
"We are focusing on the melamine right now because we believe that, even if melamine is not the causative agent, it is somehow associated with the causative agent, so it serves as a marker."
Perhaps the FDA should be focusing on the phantoms in the poison pet food scare story. Phantoms like million dollar operations without signs on their doors with rundown warehouses in China.
Phantoms like Xuzhou Anying, which says it does not export to the U.S. when it just did--through a supplier only 50 miles down the road.
ChemNutra's China office is located at Jing Sui Bldg. 601, Hangzhou, Zhejiang. The contact person for the China office is listed as Mr. Zhu Hao.
ChemNutra lists the number of employees at it China operation as "1 to 50" and the number of employees at its Las Vegas operation as "less than five people". That's not a lot of employees for a company whose annual sales are above US$100 million.
ChemNutra is operated by the husband and wife team of Steven S. Miller, 55, and Sally Qing Miller, 40.
According to previous versions of the ChemNutra website checked by Canada Free Press through Wayback Machine, Steve Miller "has over 20 years experience in business management, entrepreneurship, finance, marketing and law. His experience includes President and COO of a $200 million receivables finance company. He has also served as Vice President at both Smith Barney and EF Hutton, as well as Investment Officer at Citibank. While an investment banker and banker, Steve arranged and closed over $600 million of investments and financings.
"Steve earned a Law degree as well as an MBA degree at Columbia University, and bachelors degree from Brigham Young University. Steve is a lawyer and licensed member of the New York Bar. He also served as Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance, at New York University.'
Wife Sally Qing Miller is ChemNutra President.
"Sally has over 12 years of experience in China as QA Manager and Purchasing Manager, working for various multinational companies who imported and exported chemicals worldwide. As purchasing manager, she was responsible for purchasing and exporting over $100 million of nutraceutival chemicals worldwide.
"Sally earned an MBA from City University in Seattle, as well as (an) Engineering degree in Food Chemical Engineering at Hanzhou Institute of Commerce in Hanzhou, China. She is a member of the Institute for Supply Management in the U.S., and the China Food Ingredients Association in China. She is certified as an ISO 9000 Chief Auditor."
The legal representative listed for ChemNutra is "CEO".
To keep the facts separate from the phantoms, there were some 873 tons of wheat gluten shipped to three pet food makers by ChemNutra.
According to the FDA, "The wheat gluten ChemNutra recalled was all shipped from China in 25 kg. paper bags, and distributed to customers in the same unopened bags. The bags were all labeled "Wheat Gluten Batch No.---- Net Weight: 25 kg. Gross Weight: 25.1 Made in China."
Facts that fly in the face of The China Inspection and Quarantine Times, which stated in a report on its website that as of March 29, China had "never exported wheat or wheat gluten...to the United States."
The www.cannonfire.blogspot.com is right on the money when it says Senator Dick Durbin who has announced oversight hearings into the pet food industry should be pressured to investigate the entire industry, "which remains largely unregulated."
"The meat supply is of great concern, since "recycled" pets (euthanized cats and dogs) are tossed into the rendering vats, including tags and flea collars and plastic coverings. That's what you pet is eating when the label reads "meats and meat by-products"."
Meanwhile, while phantoms remain at large, the clock is still ticking for Fido and Fluffy.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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