Menu Foods Settles Tainted Pet Food Lawsuit

A Canadian pet food maker and hundreds of distraught pet owners have reached an “agreement in principle” to settle a class action lawsuit after the company sold tainted pet food last year.

The food led to the deaths of thousands of pets in North America. At the core of the class action suit is Canada-based Menu Foods, a distributor of more than 120 lines of pet food found to be contaminated with tainted gluten.

When imported from China to Canada, the packages avoided inspection as they were marked to be gluten-free products. Products with gluten are earmarked for an almost certain inspection when they’re imported.

Several other defendants are involved in the lawsuit, but were not named in the preliminary report from The Philadelphia Inquirer and Associated Press.

A spokesperson for Menu Foods says the total recall costs for that company will be about $53.8 million. Criminal charges have been filed against two Chinese companies and a Las Vegas company in connection with this recall.