Menu Foods Income Fund

Pet owners worried Saturday that the pet food in their cupboards could be deadly after millions of containers of dog and cat food sold at major retailers across North America were recalled. Menu Foods, the Canadian-based company that produced the pet food, said Saturday that it was recalling dog food sold under 48 brands and cat food sold under 40 brands including Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba.

Worries about food safety hit America's pet owners last weekend as they came to grips with a dog and cat food recall affecting 88 brands of mostly canned "cuts and gravy" selections. In all, about 60 million cans and foil pouches of items made by Streetsville, Canada-based Menu Foods Income Fund were being recalled. As the food became linked to at least 10 recent animal deaths, pet owners began making nervous calls to their veterinarians and flooding the Canadian company's phone lines.

Rat poison was identified Friday as the substance suspected of contaminating pet food that has killed or sickened dogs and cats across the nation, although it is still unclear how the deadly chemical got into the food. Federal officials, meanwhile, reported an expanded recall of dog and cat food produced by Menu Foods of Ontario, Canada.

More than a month after the first chemically tainted pet food was recalled, melamine continues to be found in animal feed -- including meal for livestock and fish destined for human consumption. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said that people are not at risk because the tainted ingredients were diluted before being fed to the livestock and fish, but many questions persist. How did the problem come to light? Menu Foods Income Fund, a Canadian-owned pet food manufacturer that supplies foods for dozens of private-label and popular pet food brands, announced a recall of 60 million containers of moist dog and cat food in March.

Companies that were sued over contaminated pet food linked to the deaths of perhaps thousands of dogs and cats have agreed to pay $24 million to pet owners in the United States and Canada. The settlement is detailed in papers filed late Thursday in U.S. District Court in Camden, N.J. It still needs a judge's approval; a court hearing is set for May 30. "The settlement attempts to reimburse pet owners for all of their economic damages," said Russell Paul, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.