Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. pulled from store shelves pet food from China that is suspected of sickening animals. But it did not issue a larger recall of the product, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The company stopped selling Chicken Jerky Strips from Import-Pingyang Pet Product and Chicken Jerky from Shanghai Bestro Trading on July 26 after customers complained about the products.

"When we took it off shelves at the end of July, we pulled it based on the customer feedback so we could do testing prior to announcing anything publicly," said company spokeswoman Deisha Galberth.

"That's why did not make a public announcement — it was still going through the testing process."

Galberth was unable to say if the treats were distributed nationally. She said tests on the products were still being conducted. A spokesman for Wal-Mart Canada says the pet food was not sold in Canada.

The Wal-Mart announcement follows a massive pet food recall of more than 100 brands in March across North America traced back to tainted wheat gluten imported from China. Tests showed the wheat gluten was contaminated with melamine — a chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers.

In recent months, Chinese imports have come under global scrutiny for product safety violations. In July, Health Canada said testing had shown the presence of diethylene glycol — a chemical used to make antifreeze — in 24 brands of Chinese toothpaste imported into the country.

In the latest warning, the New Zealand government ordered an investigation Monday after scientists conducting tests for TV3's Target consumer watchdog program discovered formaldehyde concentrations up to 900 times above the safe level in woollen and cotton clothes.

The chemical is sometimes used in clothing manufactuer to give clothes a permanent-press effect, but is also used as an embalming fluid and can cause problems ranging from skin rashes to cancer.

PLUS

Menu Foods sells Sioux City manufacturing plant to Mars, Inc.

August 21, 2007 -- From Sioux City Journal

Struggling to recover financially from a massive recall of its tainted pet food earlier this year, Menu Foods Income Fund has decided to sell its North Sioux City production facility to Mars Inc., for $26.3 million.

The privately-held Mars, whose pet food division sells such brands as Whiskas and Pedigree, had been a key Menu Foods customer. But earlier this month, Mars severed its manufacturing agreement with Ontario, Canada-based Menu Foods, which in March began recalling about 60 million cans and pouches of its "cut and gravy'' dog and cat food after reports of deaths and illness among North America pets.

Mars now intends to self-manufacture its Royal Canin and Nutro brands of pet foods, Menu Foods President and CEO Paul K. Henderson said in a report to its shareholders. Under terms of the sale, which is set to close on or about Oct. 1, Mars has agreed to offer jobs to the North Sioux City workers on "terms substantially similar to their existing employment," Henderson said.

The North Sioux City plant at 830 Derby Lane, which employs about 180 people, was not the source of the Menu Foods recall. Instead, the tainted products were made at the company's other two U.S. plants in Emporia, Kan., and Pennsauken, N.J. It was one of at least 11 North American pet food manufacturers that had used vegetable proteins contaminated in China with melamine or related compounds.

The beleaguered pet-food giant last week reported second quarter losses of $3.6 million, as sales for the three months ending June 30 plunged 44 percent and operating costs escalated.

Henderson said Menu has won back most private-label customers, and shipments are up sharply in the third quarter, but it has lost several large-scale buyers, including Mars.

Mars, based in McLean, Va., is best known as the maker of popular candies such as M&Ms, Mars and Snickers bars. From a small candy business that started in the founders' kitchen in 1911, Mars has grown to a $18 billion food and drink conglomerate that does business in more than 500 countries.

The North Sioux City pet food plant, originally known as Heatland Quality Foods, has been affiliated with Menu Foods since November 2003. Menu purchased the plant from Procter & Gamble, which had inherited the plant in its 1999 acquisition of Iams pet food.