Nutro recalls puppy food that may contain melted plastic
By Christie Keith
September 29, 2009
It started out as a rumor, but one of Nutro’s “Ambassadors” just confirmed it on her Twitter feed: Nutro is “voluntarily withdrawing” — or, in plain English, recalling — some puppy food sold through PetSmart and Petco stores:
EdnaAtNutro @cvec Hi! I’m with Nutro. Re: plastic-During a maint. shutdown, a bump cap inadvertently made its way into our mfg. process equipment….
EdnaAtNutro @cvec Nutro audited 3000 bags of potentially affected finished product that never left our mfg site.
EdnaAtNutro @cvec Out of abundance of caution, Nutro voluntarily retrieved pot. affected product in a small number of PS/PC stores.
EdnaAtNutro @cvec Consumers who have purchased pot. affected product should return it to their retailer or contact Nutro’s Consumer Care @ 800- 833-5330
My favorite question for Edna, and one I’d like to see an answer to from the company:
kittymadgrrrr @EdnaAtNutro perhaps Nutro should post this at their website?
Indeed.
One of our readers emailed PetSmart about the recall, and received this reply:
Thank you for contacting PetSmart. Nutro has done a voluntary product withdrawal. This was done by the company for certain Nutro products and size. The affected items were Nutro Ultra Puppy 4.5 lb bags and Nutro Natural Choice Chicken, Rice and Oatmeal Puppy Small Bites in 5lb bags. While we have not been notified of any injury or illness related to these products, Pet Parents who have purchased these products should immediately stop feeding the food to their pets.
Because the withdrawal of these items only affects certain sized packages, you can return these to your nearest PetSmart to exchange the affected product for an alternate-sized package of the same food or a full refund.
If you have any more questions about this withdrawal, please contact Nutro customer service at 1-800-833-5330 or visit www.nutroproducts.com.
Again, we would like to reiterate that this is a voluntary Nutro product withdrawl.
I find the whole “voluntary.. withdrawal” thing so aggravating. Since FDA does not have the authority to order pet food recalls (or human ones, for that matter), all recalls are voluntary.
Including the ones that get spun into “withdrawals.”
Long story short: Companies, stop parsing words. Announce clearly and early, and don’t fantasize that you’ll be able to bring this in under the radar. You won’t. It just makes you look like you have something to hide, and erodes consumer confidence.
Doesn’t plastic seem like code for melanmie? Just saying.
Comment by Nancy Freedman-Smith CPDT — September 29, 2009 @ 6:04 pm
Anyone else fed up with Nuto’s so called voluntary withdrawels & no posting anywhere for consumers to check ? A recall is a recall. The company needs to stop playing word games & notify consumers so that more animals aren’t harmed by their products.
Comment by Leslie K — September 29, 2009 @ 6:25 pm
Why isn’t this on the Nutro website? I just checked 9/29/09 @ 3:25pm HST and it’s not there.
Aren’t ALL recalls (withdrawals?) voluntary as FDA cannot “force” a recall?
Comment by Mary Ann — September 29, 2009 @ 6:27 pm
Comment by Nancy Freedman-Smith CPDT — September 29, 2009 @ 6:04 pm
Doesn’t plastic seem like code for melanmie? Just saying.
No, some idiot let his hat fall off:
http://www.labsafety.com/store.....Bump_Caps/
Comment by The OTHER Pat — September 29, 2009 @ 6:34 pm
They let their hat fall off and didnt TELL anyone? Or did they tell and they just figured whats a little plastic in dry dog kibble? WTH? And I thought Nutro had all this new QC since their dry cat food recall in May…wouldnt the machines have made some sort of funny noises while it was grinding up that bump hat or wouldnt some sort of alarms go off to tell them something was in the food that shouldnt oughta be…
Why does a company think its OK to pull food off of shelves but not notify the public that the food in their homes, in their dogs bowls, might have an itty bitty problem of a big plastic ground up hat in it…good grief.
Comment by Sam — September 29, 2009 @ 7:02 pm
Pat, can’t resist, here is what my middle school daughter would say about the hat—“that’s what she said.” :)
Comment by Nancy Freedman-Smith CPDT — September 29, 2009 @ 7:16 pm
Thanks for the heads up — I forwarded this to a new member on my Boston forum who recently announced she was switching her new puppy from Iams to Nutro puppy. She clearly needed this information.
Comment by Susan — September 29, 2009 @ 7:37 pm
Well Christie, I have to give them props for not using “out of an abundance of caution” in their “voluntary withdraw” . . .
Not.
Comment by straybaby — September 29, 2009 @ 7:47 pm
Sorry to burst your bubble Stray, the “abundance of caution” is being used at twitter though by one of their reps…you didnt really think it wouldnt be used at some point right? (-:
Comment by Sam — September 29, 2009 @ 7:54 pm
I hope that cvec at Twitter responds back to that Edna at Nutro on Twitter (oh yeah..it’s me) off I go…
Comment by Carol V — September 30, 2009 @ 4:54 am
Another Mars/Nutro recall? That makes three since the cat food recall.
Barley - prohibited material
Bulk Ground Corn - prohibited material
Puppy Food - plastic
Something very wrong with Mars/Nutro, IMO.
Comment by 5CatMom — September 30, 2009 @ 4:56 am
The worst of this is the fact that if Susan Thixton had not gotten this “tip”—-would we even know??? And what else can go on behind the scenes that we don’t know about? Thank God for social media (for consumers anyway)
Comment by Carol V — September 30, 2009 @ 5:22 am
{blush} thanks Sam, totally missed that! Need to work on my reading skills :P
Comment by straybaby — September 30, 2009 @ 6:01 am
I worry that social media being woven into these companies’ “plausible deniability” defense. It is irresponsible that Nutro hasn’t posted this to their web site. No consumer can be expected to search Twitter to check for information about their pet food being recalled.
I’ve passed this information along my grapevine. And for good measure, I submitted it as a tip to the Consumerist site. They did an article on the May Nutro cat food recall and a subsequent article about how Nutro was denying cat owner claims of injuries due to tainted food, so I thought they might show some interest. Fingers crossed.
Comment by Feline — September 30, 2009 @ 7:20 am
My dogs loved Nutro, and our local pet store had nothing but the highest praise for them several years ago, but too many recalls and not enough “hey, you need to know this to protect your pets” information caused me to go with another dog food brand. There just seems to be a want of care on behalf of the folks who are now behind Nutro.
Comment by cloverest — September 30, 2009 @ 9:14 am
Looks like Lisa McCormick got some more info on this…it was a hard hat…
http://www.consumeraffairs.com.....y_mix.html
Comment by Carol V — September 30, 2009 @ 9:50 am
Problems with puppy milk Esbilac from Petag. FDA investigating. Will they do anything about it? Babies are dying.
http://www.indybay.org/newsite.....623489.php
Comment by Knoll Rick — September 30, 2009 @ 1:39 pm
If these companies were truly doing such withdrawals, aka recalls, “out of an abundance of caution” as their reps are so fond of stating, IMO, I would think they would:
1) Post affected product name and lot details on their website. Provide accurate information regarding the problem, suspected scope of the problem, and geographical regions affected if known. This info would be posted in an readily discoverable location, ideally the very first page of the website. (Tip: hiding it under the About Us section does not really constitute such a location IMO).
2) Provide the same product details and description of the problem to the FDA for posting on their website.
3) Provide the same product details and description of the problem to all their distributors and stores, and get them to hold back anymore product from being sold. Ideally these distributors and stores would contact as many of their clients that purchased the affected product as they can.
4) Have all their “ambassadors” tweet an alert with the webpage link to the facts about the situation. Get the news out there on all their social networking resources. They presumably work well for selling the product; it would be nice if companies used them when there are problems too.
5) Provide news releases to the traditional media; allocate some of the PR budgets to take out ads in those regions most affected to ensure the word gets out. It’s not enough to just leave it to the media to report it; not all outlets will bother to do so. And not everyone has access to the internet. Cover ALL the bases.
6) If not already done, determine and report the cause of the problem and then provide information regarding the steps being taken to prevent a recurrence of the situation.
These actions, to me, would qualify as an “abundance of caution”. To err is human so bad things will happen; it’s how a company reacts when those bad things happen that affects the customers’ confidence and trust.
Comment by threekitties — September 30, 2009 @ 1:45 pm
As one of my facebook friends said, “how is it they’re still in business?”
I had a ton of reasons for him, but not a one of them is one I like. I wish the truth about pet food was widely known, but when all the major providers are huge companies, no major media will be willing to pick up the stories in the interest of protecting shareholders.
Grrrrrrr.
Comment by Amy — September 30, 2009 @ 1:47 pm
so the Nutro press release up today says dog and cat food…but no cat food info…why is it there are always more questions when some are answered…
http://www.nutroproducts.com/press10-1-09.shtml
Comment by Carol V — September 30, 2009 @ 2:41 pm
Nutro is calling it a “voluntary withdrawal.”
http://www.nutroproducts.com/press10-1-09.shtml
I would like to stab this whole “voluntary” thing, as well as all the ways pet food companies tie themselves in knots to avoid the word “recall,” in the head with a fork until it’s dead.
We’re not that stupid, guys. Really, we’re not.
ALL recalls are voluntary, because FDA does not have mandatory recall authority over pet food, or human food, either.
And whether you call it a “withdrawal” or a “repossession” or a “do-over” or a carbuncle makes no difference, because the FAIL here is not that you had a problem with your product — which can happen to anyone, no matter how careful they are — but that you are being sneaky about notifying your customers about it.
And the more ways you try to obfuscate, the more trust in not just this one company but the entire industry will erode, and the bigger the FAIL gets.
Comment by Christie Keith — September 30, 2009 @ 2:47 pm
Those posting hate at Nutro need to put this into a more ominous perspective - there the number of recalls from other major manufacturers. Those who say switch to this commercial brand or that are simply jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
There are major problems with the entire commercial pet food industry. Read the book Not Fit for a Dog for answers.
The solution: get your pet off processed kibble all together. Pets have been dropping dead for decades because of commercial pet foods, including some of the most popular so-called mainstream brands. Additionally, there are epidemics of obesity, diabetes, thyroid problems, allergies and more directly connected to commercial foods, which, on a good day, contain, primarily, genetically modified cereals, toxic chemical preservatives, and protein from sources “unfit for human consumption”.
MMMM. Serve it up!
Comment by Animal Wise Radio — September 30, 2009 @ 3:42 pm
Glad I don’t feed Nutro any more. If I didn’t read this blog, would never know there was a problem. How many thousands of people buy this company’s food and don’t twitter, don’t check the website, don’t hear or read about it in the paper and wonder why their pet may be sick. I was in a store called K9 today and saw several bags of Nutro in peoples’ carts. How does anyone know for certain if some of this product didn’t make its way to this store. We don’t. Our so-called “lifestyle” gets suckier by the day.
Comment by VJ — September 30, 2009 @ 4:00 pm
Nothing like a little plastic hard hat to go with your fur baby’s meal! Gee, I mix in a lot of stuff w/her food but that’s a new one on me.
I can’t say much more: all of you have said exactly how I feel about this……the commercial pf companies can pretty much do what they want when they want & it seems to be getting worse.
And they wonder why a lot of us won’t feed that stuff to our fur kids?
Do you ever wonder (as I do)…..how many things have happened similar to this where they haven’t gotten caught or bothered to do a “voluntary recall”? My next thought would be……how many times have our fur kids gotten sick & we never knew why? Hmmmmmmmm
Comment by JanC — September 30, 2009 @ 4:32 pm
“voluntarily retrieved”, lol!~ is that like playing fetch?
well, “out of an abundance of caution”, I’ll continue to home prepare all my pets’ meals as I have for the past 6-7yrs.
Comment by straybaby — September 30, 2009 @ 4:35 pm
CarolV, in reading the release, I’m guessing they managed to “voluntarily retrieve” the cat food before it hit a retail stores. But now I’m wondering how far a melted hard hat goes. Sounds like a few production runs were effected . . . You’re right, more questions . . .
Comment by straybaby — September 30, 2009 @ 4:41 pm
Shouldnt their statement say they retrieved all the product EXCEPT that which was sold to customers? And I dont see that this is a true press release, I think if it was it would have indications it was sent over newswire & it doesnt. This company makes enough money that sending out a true PR newswire wouldnt have been a hard thing for them to do…if they really wanted to. They know how to do it, afterall they’ve done it before, like just 4 months ago with their cat food recall. Never mind those people who bought the product & are getting ready to put it in puppy’s bowl for dinner tonight, last night..the night before….
Comment by Sandi K — September 30, 2009 @ 5:17 pm
When pets started falling ill and dying a few years ago from contaminated wheat brought in from China (all the pet food companies were using it), I switched to raw food. Yahoo has a very large group called ‘rawfeeding’ and the members will be glad to get you started.
Comment by Stephanie P. — September 30, 2009 @ 7:36 pm
If only you knew… That’s just the tiniest portion of the plastic that’s in most commercial pet food. Do you really think they take the ear tags off the dead cows that go into meat meal? Or the little plastic “specticals” off the beaks of factory farmed chickens. For that matter metal ear tags & leg bands go through the rendering process on a regular basis as do the bits of bailing wire & stray nales consumed by farm animals. One plastic hard hat isn’t really likely to make spits worth of difference.
Especially considering the number of plastic pet toys the average dog shreds & ingests throughout its life.
Comment by Melissa C — September 30, 2009 @ 8:17 pm
I’ve got quite few of the Kennewick puppy mill dogs & I figured because of the lack of nutrition they received I would feed them Nutro puppy food & though there may be no connection we had one mysteriously die, he ate, had some water, played with the others for a while then layed across my feet, & when I went to stand up 20 minutes later he was just gone. I have no poisons around or household cleaners, we checked the lot numbers on thier vaccines, & rabies shots, I’ve been banging my head into a wall here, so this is one in the possible list of culprits
Comment by Brandia — September 30, 2009 @ 9:19 pm
“Announce clearly and early, and don’t fantasize that you’ll be able to bring this in under the radar. You won’t. It just makes you look like you have something to hide, and erodes consumer confidence.”
Does Nutro -still- have some consumer confidence left that it can erode? =P
Comment by Pai — October 1, 2009 @ 1:22 am
“Does Nutro -still- have some consumer confidence left that it can erode?”
N O T ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Comment by Hannie — October 1, 2009 @ 8:22 am
Animal Wise Radio, what are the other current pet food recalls? Several of us have Twitter accts, and will tweet.
Comment by Eucritta — October 1, 2009 @ 9:23 am
I can tell, you it is NOT just in the bags of food, i found plastic shreads in a can as well and contacted NUTRO.sending them pictures of the plastic and the UPC code on the can I was not impressed with their lack of concern or action this was on July 17th 2009. Needless to say I STOPPED ALL nutro and told all my dog owner friends to pass it on.
Nutro will NEVER get fed to my dogs EVER again!!!
Comment by K — October 1, 2009 @ 1:48 pm
Thank the stars I don’t feed my pets Nutro but do read Pet Connection every day. Our local Ch 4 here in the Detroit area just now announced on the 5:00 news about the Nutro “withdrawal” and the code numbers of the affected food. Christie reported this on Sept 29. Today is Oct 6. What more is there to say except WTF.
Comment by VJ — October 6, 2009 @ 3:11 pm