According to reports from the Columbus Telegram, the manufacturing issue was discovered earlier in November.
The exact products involved, and the amount included in the recall have not been specified at this time.
“ADM Animal Nutrition is recalling select cattle feed products manufactured from its Columbus, Nebraska, plant due to formulation issues caused by a systems malfunction,” Jackie Anderson, spokesperson with ADM Animal Nutrition, said.
We corrected the issue immediately upon discovering it and have taken additional steps to ensure it will not happen again."
“We take incidents like this very seriously,” she said. “We have an excellent, long-time track-record for safety, and we maintain very rigorous standards and processes for all of our ingredients.”
Addressing the recall
To address the situation, ADM has been working with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said Anderson.
The company has also contacted all customers who purchased the affected products on the matter, she said. “ADM has already reached out directly to all impacted customers to recall all of the affected feed as a precaution,” she added.
There have been reports of cattle deaths from a few customers, she said. However, the company is working individually with the reporting purchasers to assess and “investigate their respective situations.”
Customers with questions about the recall are encouraged to call ADM at 800-217-2007, Monday to Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. CT, the company said.
Past cattle feed recalls
This has not been the first cattle feed recall that ADM experienced this year, the company also had a recall for a lot of Mintrate tub cattle feed in July. The product involved may have contained elevated amounts of non-protein nitrogen, which can cause harm to cattle.
Last year, the company also had concerns about a batch of cattle feed with high monensin levels, according to the FDA.
However, ADM is not the only company to face the need to recall cattle feed or feed ingredients in recent years.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), last year, reported a voluntary recall for a diatomaceous earth diatomite product that could be used as an inert carrier or anti-caking agent ingredient in feed based on its dioxin levels. The company involved, Absorbent Products, told us at the time that it was conducting additional testing to demonstrate product safety and that the bioavailability was below regulatory levels.
Ridley Block Operations also had a cattle feed recall related to products with a high level of non-protein nitrogen, according to the FDA. Although the product recall was in 2016, the company was told by the FDA to improve its practices last year.