China firm denies role in pet deaths food scare

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese company at the centre of a contamination scare that has led to a recall of pet foods in North America and Europe said on Friday it had never exported wheat gluten to the United States.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said wheat gluten from China's Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company Ltd. contained an industrial chemical called melamine, which was suspected of causing the deaths of 16 cats and dogs.

But a manager at Xuzhou Anying told Reuters the company was cooperating with the Chinese government to investigate the allegations and insisted the firm was only a domestic feed dealer that had not produced anything itself.

"We haven't sold an ounce of wheat gluten to the U.S. and I don't understand how come they are blaming us," the manager, surnamed Mao, said by telephone.

Anying's company profiles on the Internet describe it as a feed manufacturer and exporter.

China's quarantine authorities said the country was carrying out a nationwide inspection on the quality of its wheat gluten.

"Sampling and examination are under way," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Xia Wenjun, an official at the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, as saying.

Earlier this week, the administration said that China had never exported wheat or wheat gluten to the United States, a main wheat producer, or to Canada, where Menu Foods is based.

Menu Foods has recalled a variety of its pet food products in the U.S., Canada and Toronto.