Pet food recall grows again. And - a company is raided by Feds in Las Vegas -There has been additional recalls of cat and dog foods due to contamination with melamine. Ogden, Utah-based American Nutrition has recalled 28 varieties of food: Samples of rice protein from an Ogden pet-food manufacturer were positive for the industrial chemical melamine in federal testing, and products made by American Nutrition, Inc. (ANI) are now part of a nationwide pet food recall.

Pet Food Recall: Cat & Dog Food Recall Grows, Feds Raid Vegas Company

The Denver office of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked the company to voluntarily recall pet foods manufactured with rice protein imported from China by San Francisco-based Wilbur-Ellis Co. The products recalled were manufactured by American Nutrition for other independent companies and American Nutrition brands are not part of the recall, the company said in a statement.

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However, several of the companies recalling food contend in statements on their Web sites that American Nutrition added the rice protein concentrate to their products without their knowledge or approval. "It appears that ANI had been adding the unauthorized rice protein concentrate to Harmony Farms products for some time and only told the company when the FDA was about to conclude that some of ANI’s rice protein concentrate [supplied by Wilber-Ellis] was contaminated with melamine," said a statement on the Harmony Farms site.

Other companies making similar allegations are The Blue Buffalo Co., Natural Balance, Canine Caviar, Diamond Pet Foods and Mulligan Stew Pet Food. Brand names affected by the recall include Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul and Kirkland Signature in addition to the brands listed above. The complete list of varieties and production runs in the ANI recall is here. This brings the total number of brands and varieties that have been recalled to over 300.

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In another pet food recall development, the FDA executed a search warrant on ChemNutra, the company the imported the adulterated wheat gluten and sold it to Menu Foods. The pet food recall expands weekly and now a Las Vegas company is at the center of the investigation. Federal agents served a search warrant at ChemNutra, which is a supplier of one of the two ingredients suspected of the contamination.

According to reports, the FDA took documents and hard drives from ChemNutra hoping to find information on the wheat gluten containing melamine. ChemNutra claims the company they bought from in China added the melamine and had no idea it was in their product when it was bought.

The report: ChemNutra’s local office remains closed, but the company’s spokesperson said its business as usual. On Thursday, the FDA came and took documents from the company. ChemNutra says they are cooperating fully, but their headaches are far from over.

Menu Foods, one of the companies who bought wheat gluten from ChemNutra, filed a lawsuit against the Las Vegas company. They want ChemNutra to reimburse them for the recall costs plus damages. Menu Foods says they were relying on ChemNutra to supply them with a safe product.

Just to refresh your memory, Menu Foods is one of the largest pet food manufacturers in the world, supplying most of the major pet food companies on a private label basis. ChemNutra is a small, privately-held company, specializing in imports from China and boasting of substantial expertise in that area.

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USA Today reports that the FDA also is looking at all other ingredients imported by ChemNutra, and trying to reconcile what it imported with what it supplied to customers, said agency spokeswoman Julie Zawisza.

Import records obtained by The Associated Press show that since May 2006 alone ChemNutra also imported 440,000 pounds of the second suspect pet food ingredient, rice protein concentrate, from the same Chinese trading agent that handled exports of the tainted wheat gluten.

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The three contaminates are thought to be: aminopterin (a rat poison), melamine (an industrial chemical used in dinnerware, counter-tops, and as a fertilizer in Asia), and cyanuric acid (used in swimming pools to keep the chlorine from breaking down in sunlight). How did these wind up in our pet's food supply?