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By Lionel Perron

TORONTO, March 30 (Reuters) - Menu Foods Income Fund <MEW_u.TO>, maker of the tainted pet foods at the center of this month's massive recall, said on Friday it is no longer using a Chinese supplier of wheat gluten after U.S. officials found the chemical melamine in some of the recalled products.

Menu Foods stopped using the supplier on March 6, 10 days before the recall was announced, Paul Henderson, Menu Foods' president and chief executive, told a news conference in Toronto.

He said all pet food manufactured by his company after that date is safe.

"Let me be clear on this: we have removed the problem from our system," he said. "Our recall is well under way and products produced today are being made with known quality and tested raw materials."

"We are angered that a source outside the company has apparently adulterated the product, causing this regrettable loss," he added.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that melamine, a chemical used in fertilizers in Asia and forbidden in pet food, had been detected in some of the wheat gluten used by Mississauga, Ontario-based Menu Foods. The FDA said the wheat gluten came from a company in China.

Menu Foods said all of the wheat glutin tainted by melamine came from the Chinese supplier.

On March 16, Menu Foods recalled 60 million cans and pouches of "cuts-and-gravy" style wet pet food after it was blamed for the deaths of at least 14 animals -- mostly cats.

The company makes pet foods that are sold under a variety of labels such as Iams, Eukanuba, President's Choice and Nutro Max Gourmet Classics, store brands sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. <WMT.N> and Safeway Inc. <SWY.N> and at specialty pet stores including Petsmart Inc. <PETM.O>

The company says it used the Chinese supplier because its regular North American and European wheat gluten suppliers couldn't keep up with demand.

"In general there's a tight supply and we had to seek additional products to meet our needs, that's why we looked at bringing in additional suppliers", said Randall Copeland, Menu Foods' vice president.

It is still unclear how the chemical got into the wheat gluten.

Henderson said he could not confirm the number of deaths related to the pet food recall, noting the company has fielded about 300,000 calls from across North America.

Last week, New York state officials said aminopterin, a substance used in rat poison, had been found in the pet food. However, the FDA has not confirmed the presence of that toxin in the recalled pet food.

Menu Foods says its investigation into the toxic ingredient that caused the recall is continuing.

"This is a subject of very great interest to us and our lawyers and you can expect we'll be following up", said Henderson.

Units of Menu Foods closed up 16 Canadian cents, or 4 percent, at C$4.05 on Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

($1=$1.15 Canadian)

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