Companies Fined $7M for Faking Pet Food Ingredients

They sent feathers instead of chicken
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 12, 2018 12:10 AM CDT
Companies Fined $7M for Faking Pet Food Ingredients
The ground-up feathers were used to replace more expensive ingredients.   (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

A federal judge in St. Louis has ordered two companies to pay a combined $7 million for shipping ingredients containing poultry feathers and other misbranded items to pet food manufacturers. Wilbur-Ellis Feed pleaded guilty in April. Diversified Ingredients Inc. pleaded guilty in July. Both were sentenced Thursday. Federal authorities say Wilbur-Ellis substituted lower cost ingredients for chicken and turkey meal in shipments from a Texas plant to pet food manufacturers in 2013 and 2014, the AP reports. Some shipments included ground-up feathers. Diversified, a commodities broker, had pet food companies among its customers. Its clients received the adulterated ingredients. Federal prosecutors say the ingredients posed no health threat to animals that ate the pet food.

(More pet food stories.)

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