Business Owners Plead Guilty to Distributing Tainted Ingredient Used in Pet Food

More than 800 metric tons of tainted wheat gluten was imported by Chemnutra and the Millers into the United States from China in at least 13 separate shipments. Those shipments of wheat gluten were tainted with melamine, an unsafe food additive.

19/06/09 Matt J. Whitworth, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Nevada company and its owners pleaded guilty in federal court today to distributing a tainted ingredient used to make pet food, which resulted in a nationwide recall of pet food and the death and serious illness of countless pets across the United States in 2007.

“Millions of pet owners were impacted by the pet food recall in 2007,” Whitworth said. “The conduct of these defendants in violating federal health and safety standards caused the deaths and illness of thousands of family pets, as well as anxiety among dog and cat owners across the country and economic harm to many pet food manufacturers.”

Sally Qing Miller, 43, a Chinese national, and her husband, Stephen S. Miller, 56, both of Las Vegas, Nev., along with their company, Chemnutra, Inc., pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Maughmer yesterday to some of the charges contained in a Feb. 6, 2008, federal indictment, and agreed that the conduct charged against them in the remaining counts could be considered by the court as relevant conduct and used against them at the time of sentencing.

“The FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations acted aggressively in 2007 to investigate Chemnutra,” said Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., Commissioner of Food and Drugs. “Today’s announcement reflects our continued commitment to investigate and prosecute companies and individuals that violate the law and endanger the public’s health through illegal conduct.”

Chemnutra is a company that buys food and food components in China and imports those items into the United States to sell to companies in the food industry. Sally Miller is the controlling owner and president of Chemnutra; Stephen Miller is an owner and chief executive officer of Chemnutra. Each of the three co-defendants pleaded guilty to one count of selling adulterated food and one count of selling misbranded food.

More than 800 metric tons of tainted wheat gluten was imported by Chemnutra and the Millers into the United States from China in at least 13 separate shipments, with invoices totaling nearly $850,000, between Nov. 6, 2006, and Feb. 21, 2007. Those shipments of wheat gluten were tainted with melamine, an unsafe food additive. Chemnutra and the Millers received the melamine-tainted product at a port of entry in Kansas City, Mo., and then sold and shipped the product to their customers across the United States, who used it to manufacture various brands of pet food.

By pleading guilty today, Chemnutra and the Millers admitted that melamine was substituted wholly or in part for the protein requirement of the wheat gluten so as to make it appear the wheat gluten was better or of greater value than it was. They also admitted that the labeling of the wheat gluten was false and misleading because the wheat gluten was represented to have a minimum protein level of 75 percent, when in fact it did not. The labeling was also false and misleading because melamine was not listed on the label as an ingredient.

Pet food manufacturers recalled more than 150 brands of dog and cat food across the nation in 2007, following reports of cats and dogs suffering kidney failure after eating the affected products. There is no coordinated national tracking system to monitor the number of pet deaths. However, consumer reports received by the FDA suggest that approximately 1,950 cats and 2,200 dogs died after eating pet food contaminated with melamine.

Wheat gluten is the natural protein derived from wheat or wheat flour, which is extracted and dried to yield a powder of high protein content. Pet food manufacturers use wheat gluten as a binding agent in the manufacture of certain types of pet food to thicken pet food “gravy.”

Melamine has a number of commercial and industrial uses, but it has no approved use as an ingredient in human or animal food in the United States. Melamine can be used to create products such as plastics, cleaning products, counter tops, glues, inks and fertilizers. Mixing melamine with wheat gluten made the wheat gluten appear to have a higher protein level than was actually present.

Under federal statutes, the Millers are each subject to a sentence of up to two years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $200,000 and an order of restitution. ChemNutra is subject to a fine up to $400,000 and an order of restitution. Sentencing hearings will be scheduled after the completion of presentence investigations by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gene Porter and Joseph Marquez. It was investigated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigation and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.