A major food recall affects 88 brands of mostly canned "cuts and gravy" selections made by Canadian pet food maker Menu Foods.

Tainted pet food is already responsible for the deaths of 10 pets across the U.S. Menu Foods says it produces 1 billion cans and bags of pet food a year.

The reported deaths of cats and dogs have been from kidney disease, company representative said as quoted by New York Times. Symptoms vary but can include lethargy, jaundice and vomiting.

Kurt Weingand, a veterinarian and the associate director of external relations for Procter & Gamble’s pet care business, said that the company had been told of 20 cats that had developed kidney failure in the last two weeks. Of those, two have died.

One of Toronto Daily News employees confirmed that her dog vomited frequently after eating cuts-and-gravy dog food made by Iams in the last two weeks. The food was purchased in Wal-Mart. After switching to another brand (not of cuts-and-gravy style), dog's condition has improved.

Menu Foods said it had recalled some food made for the Iams unit of Procter & Gamble.

Two other pet food companies — Nestlé Purina PetCare and Hills Pet Nutrition, the unit of Colgate-Palmolive that makes the Science Diet brand — recalled some of their products that were made by Menu Foods.

The recall covers its "cuts and gravy" style food sold from December 3, 2006 to March 6, 2007 in cans and pouches, and includes such brands as Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba.

According to company's source as quoted by New York Times, reported deaths may be linked with its use of a new supplier for wheat gluten, a source of protein.

Dogs or cats which have consumed the suspect food and show signs of kidney failure such as loss of appetite, jaundice, lethargy and vomiting should be taken to their veterinarian, veterinarians say.

Menu Foods said would compensate owners of pets that died, although company declined to say what the compensation would be. Company’s stock fell by 26 percent on Friday, after it announced that the recall could cost it between $30 million and $40 million.