Pet food recall: Has anything changed?
By Christie Keith
September 8, 2007
I just got home from a day spent at the Bay Area Pet Fair, where I did a talk on the pet food recall and what, if anything, has changed.
I was the first speaker of the day and things started out slow, but there ended up being a nice crowd. They were a great audience, seemed very informed, and had lots of excellent questions.
And nearly all of them manufactured or sold some kind of high-end, niche market pet food.
And that, dear readers, sums up in a nutshell what I think the single most pervasive change wrought by the pet food recall really is: Marketing.
I’m not saying some pet owners haven’t become more savvy consumers, because they have. Some have even abandoned commercial foods altogether.
I’m not saying some companies haven’t improved their testing procedures, because some have.
I’m not saying there are no improvements in pet food manufacturing, although I think there have been precious few.
And I’m not even saying there was anything in the world wrong with pet food manufacturers for being at that talk, because they should have been. They are, after all, pet lovers, too, and it’s their industry and thus, of great interest and concern to them.
But if you’re looking for the big, sweeping changes? You’ll find them in ad copy, press releases, text on websites, and on the front of pet food packages, and not in the laws and regulations about food safety, country of origin labeling, a reporting system for animal illness and death, or simple, accurate, and complete labeling requirements for pet food.
One pet food recall issue that I just became aware of: cyanuric acid.
I keep an outdoor pool and this stuff is required to help sustain healthy levels of chlorine.
Problem with it? It’s a weak acid. Nothing seemingly spectacular. Well, it’s the stuff that binds with Melamine to create highly insoluble crystals that kill the kidney from within!
AKH!
In reading up on it, it seems that the likely cause of the melamine poisoning isn’t that there was melamine in the food or cyanuric acid in the food… but that there was both in the dregs of the low end melamine that is not food grade and that was likely used by the evil Chinese.
Um, that begs the question. If melamine and cyanuric acid are fine on their own… do pet owners with pools have to worry about the dog drinking the pool water and any melamine becoming toxic melamine?
Ugh.
Comment by Christopher — September 8, 2007 @ 10:22 pm
Christie,
I don’t know if you heard, but Royal Canin has invited a select group of golden retriever judges and breeders to a seminar in Chicago, all expenses paid, to discuss what ingredients need to be in a breed specific food just for goldens. Not sure if they intend to add on other breed specific foods down the road.
This looks like more marketing and PR. I had wished the companies would have understood our request to know country of origin on the labels, more focus on quality of ingredients in the bag, quality control and testing of ingredients and putting into place a crisis management program. All I have seen is more fancy and colorful ad copy, coupons, and fancy bags - with the same old stuff in them. Nothing has changed!The very reason I continue to home cook.
Katie
Comment by Katie — September 9, 2007 @ 12:15 pm
In regards to Royal Canin. I bought a bag of their specialty formula for Persian cats from a local pet shop, in the month of March 2007. I fed it to my cat, and she became very ill afterwards (this was my cat who passed away from eating contaminated foods back in April).
When I contacted Royal Canin in regards to my cat getting sick, the rep wouldn’t listen to me. They insisted that nothing was wrong with their food, and all they could offer was a refund for the bag, which could be obtained by taking the product back to the pet shop.
I was so disgusted with them, that while a crisis was occuring with the pet food of many manufacturers…they were not even willing to investigate or entertain the possibility of theirs being contaminated too.
I will never buy their food again.
Comment by Marcy — September 9, 2007 @ 12:49 pm
KATIE said: “I don’t know if you heard, but Royal Canin has invited a select group of golden retriever judges and breeders to a seminar in Chicago, all expenses paid, to discuss what ingredients need to be in a breed specific food just for goldens. Not sure if they intend to add on other breed specific foods down the road.”
I thought I read in a pet food industry newsletter (don’t know where right now) that the breed-specific pet foods was a new area to target to drum up business. The industry has already gone through the puppy, adult, active, mature/senior, sensitive stomach, etc. formulas. The new move is to target “specific breed” diets. Here’s an example:
http://www.veterinarypracticen.....foods.aspx
Comment by petlover — September 9, 2007 @ 2:09 pm
Anything that gets a company more shelf space can potentiall squeeze other brands out of the way.
Oh, the creative “genius” of the marketing gurus knows no bounds. Too bad they don’t put that kind of effort into making sure the food is actually GOOD for our critters (not to mention sharing accurate and reliable information on what is actually IN it.).
Comment by The OTHER Pat — September 9, 2007 @ 2:24 pm
I don’t think much has changed in the food. My friend just bought a bag of purina sensitive stomach for Her cats. they were ALL sick all day long. She threw the bag away. But it does make you wonder?
Comment by Trudy Jackson — September 9, 2007 @ 5:05 pm
I posted this on Itchmo but think I forgot to post here. I have been finding pieces of plastic in the cats canned food. Has anyone else? this has happened to Me 4 times.
I had to buy this food because the cat is 20 and doesn’t have any teeth. she needs something real soft with no chunks.
Comment by Trudy Jackson — September 9, 2007 @ 5:07 pm
Trudy-
Since our cat was poisoned in March, and barely survived, I have been feeding her BABY food to meet our need for wet food, in addition to dry kidney kibble from the vet (this very reluctantly). We have had pretty good success with the baby food. I get the Stage 1 or Stage 2 foods, and just check the ingredients to be sure there is no salt, onion, or garlic. Grace will only eat the meats, but my cats at home like the green beans and the squash, and I feed them canned pumpkin too which helps with hairballs.
I figured that at least the ingredients are of a higher food grade quality, maybe are tested a little better (surely they would react faster if it were babies dying), and cost wise it works out ok. I tried home cooking and just couldn’t keep up with it. This is more convenient, and if you check the labels carefully, the ingredients are pretty basic, as close to what I was cooking as I could get.
Might check with the vet about adding some supplements to allow for taurine and calcium needs, or you may try soaking some dry kibble in water or some other liquid and running it through a blender or food processor to liquefy it and add it to your canned food or baby food.
Comment by michelle — September 9, 2007 @ 6:45 pm
Michelle, Thank you, i’ll try it.
Comment by Trudy Jackson — September 10, 2007 @ 10:26 am
Nope, nothing has changed. Toxins still in food, check. Cover up still going on, check. Pets still dying, check. Pet owners still paying the bills, check. Vet bills still not being paid by pet food companies that sold poison labeled as premium pet food, check.
Endless debate over which pet food is least lethal, check.
Looks just like it did in March, April, May, June, July, August.
Forecast is for more of the same, with partly deadly food at varying intervals and hip deep bull crap on a daily basis.
Comment by E. Hamilton — September 10, 2007 @ 5:05 pm
You got that right. Same, same, nothing different. I’m home cooking, do you think I should ask someone what food I should go back buying?
Comment by Jenny Bark — September 10, 2007 @ 6:05 pm
I haven’t been on for a few weeks , but it seems very little has changed with the food problems.
I received a check from the claim I filed with Iams for my cat the died from poisoned food but no refund for all the bad food I had already purchased and feed him 163 packets in all and I have every receipt to prove it.
To Jenny Bark, I’m home cooking wet food for both my dog and my 2 new rescue kitty’s I bake their hard treats as well, but making dry food took alot of time and effort so I did alot of reseach and I mean alot !! and I have been using Eagle pack dry food since May and no problems at all in fact they love it, Yes it cost more and there are only a few places in kansas city that sell it but it’s worth the cost to me. Eagle pack has wet food but the boys like my cooking so much and I can prepare it for about the same cost as commerical food that I will never go back to the can or pouch.
Comment by John — September 18, 2007 @ 7:44 am
Christie:
I am working on a research project on the Menu Foods recall. I’m interested in getting in touch with anyone whose pets, younger than age ten, passed away after eating the wet pet food by Menu Foods that was sold at Wal-mart. Do you know anyone who meets those qualifications? If so, I’d like to hear about your or their experiences. Please let me know if you get a chance. I’d really like the chance to get this story into a research project.
Thanks,
Katherine Tiedemann
tiedemann@newamerica.net
Comment by Katherine — October 9, 2007 @ 8:17 am