Do you like this story?
Proctor & Gamble recall Iams canned cat foods
By Christie Keith
June 9, 2010
Proctor & Gamble announced a recall of all varieties of Iams ProActive Health canned Cat and Kitten Food in 3 oz and 5.5 oz cans, dated 09/2011 to 06/2012 on the bottom of the can:
Diagnostic testing indicated that the product may contain insufficient levels of thiamine (Vitamin B1), which is essential for cats. Cats that were fed these canned products as their only food are at greater risk for developing signs of thiamine deficiency.
[....]
Early signs of thiamine deficiency may include loss of appetite, salivation, vomiting and weight loss. In advanced cases, signs may include ventroflexion (downward curving) of the neck, wobbly gait, falling, circling and seizures. Contact your veterinarian immediately if your cat is displaying any of these signs. If treated promptly, thiamine deficiency is typically reversible.
Consumers who have purchased canned cat food with these codes should discard it. For further information or a product refund call P&G toll-free at 877-340-8826 (Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM EST).
Interesting that last fall, Diamond cat foods were recalled for problems with thiamine levels. Unlike that recall, however, P&G actually used the word “recall” and linked to the announcement from the front page of their website.
And worth noting, P&G was the company who had good enough product tracking systems in place to identify the problem with Menu Foods in 2007, and enough care for their brand to tell Menu to announce a recall or they’d do it without them.
And they didn’t announce the recall on Friday at midnight after it had been rumored around the Interwebz for a week, either.
Still gotta wonder, are they using the same vitamin mix source as the earlier Diamond recall? If so, how did this happen again? And if not, what’s going on with the vitamin mixes?
Many questions, to which we’ll hopefully get some answers now that this has happened again.
Gina update: I was at the local Target when Iams contacted us. Buying cat litter, in fact. I walked down the aisle took a picture of the product on the shelves. And yes, I told them it was recalled. I wonder if I can get the same picture tomorrow?
Share & Enjoy
|
Facebook
|
Twitter
|
Google Buzz
|
Digg
|
|
Technorati
|
StumbleUpon
|
Delicious
|
Email
|
Home
And unlike most of the other recalls, or withdrawals or call-backs I have seen, they dont say they have had no reports of illness. While I commend them for the recall, still gotta wonder where the heck is the quality control with these companies that should have caught this before the food was put on shelves for people to buy.
Comment by Sandi K — June 9, 2010 @ 2:40 pm
Gina, Iams contacted PetConnection personally to tell them about the recall?
Comment by Sandi K — June 9, 2010 @ 2:51 pm
E-mail, yes. Props to them for not doing the proverbial “dump and run” release on a Friday night. Also, they’re pretty clear about what the signs might be of related illness.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — June 9, 2010 @ 2:56 pm
Wow, I am impressed that they did that! It doesnt seem like too many pet food companies do that……
Comment by Sandi K — June 9, 2010 @ 2:58 pm
Although you can’t possibly say I’m happy about a product recall, I can tell you from 2007 that Iams was stand-up about it then, and remains so.
And remember, we reported then that Iams triggered the recall, by telling Menu in no uncertain terms that if Menu didn’t recall, Iams WOULD.
Everything went pretty nuts after that.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — June 9, 2010 @ 3:00 pm
Yes I remember that well Gina. I do agree, I like that they are calling this what it is, a recall…instead of using some other vague words to describe a recall like other companies have done. I also like that they have linked it to their front page and have put it out in an AP notice and even contacted PetConnection about it. I agree, I hate that there is any recall but I have to say that this is one of the best handled ones Ive seen so far. I just hope there are no sick kitties from it and if there are, they can get treatment in time.
Comment by Sandi K — June 9, 2010 @ 3:04 pm
Really wish that candy companies, soap companies, and toothpaste companies would quit the pet food business.
Pet food should be made by those who are serious about pets and pet food, IMO.
Comment by 5CatMom — June 9, 2010 @ 3:38 pm
I’m not as up to date on the recall stuff as a lot here are. I have to think, though, that it would be much easier to stop this kind of recall from happening in the first place than some sort of contaminant making it’s way into a factory. Don’t they test their mixes? I don’t get it!
Comment by Original Lori — June 9, 2010 @ 3:45 pm
well if they didn’t keep trying to cut corners and reward their executives for keeping costs down at the expense of quality, maybe they would actually (gasp) produce food that was healthy to eat and not have all these recalls!
Comment by CathyNJustinMommy — June 9, 2010 @ 6:29 pm
I was thinking tonight and Im still not understanding this thiamine deficiency thing. Diamond had their recall of dry cat food for thiamine deficiency and now Iams with wet cat food. Why is there a problem with thiamine and not some other mineral? And why do we now have two pet food companies with thiamine deficiency? I wish if P&G is reading here, they could help us understand more on why this has happened again. & what they are doing to see that it doesnt happen again…..
Comment by Sandi K — June 9, 2010 @ 6:35 pm
Isn’t China the biggest supplier of vitamins? I remember reading that somewhere. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that there is only one vitamin supply (people and animal vitamins coming from the same sources in China) same as there is only one food supply here.
Comment by Susan Fox — June 9, 2010 @ 6:59 pm
It’s true that a lot of vitamin premixes for the animal feed/pet food industry are made overseas (lots in Thailand). But these premix companies usually have facilities and offices in the USA as well. Globally, there are only really four big companies supplying vitamin premixes to the pet industry: DSM, Nutreco, Provimi and Evialis.
But it gets confusing because they’ll often have or be subsidiaries. Like Nutreco which owns Trouw Nutrition. Trouw is the company that made the premix involved in the Nutro recall last year.
Interestingly, the current Quality Assurance & Feed Safety Manager at Trouw Nutrition is also currently employed by P&G Petcare in a similar position.
It’s hard to know for sure which company manufactured the thiamine-deficient premix for P&G but it seems like it would be found in other pet foods since the premix industry is dominated by only a few manufacturers worldwide.
Comment by Joy — June 10, 2010 @ 5:32 am
Yeah, the premix is the unstable link in the chain for my farm-animal feed, which I have milled locally.
I haven’t found a way around it.
Comment by H. Houlahan — June 10, 2010 @ 5:42 am
Yes, I remember three years ago also. What a time it was…not knowing what was safe, or what would kill our pets. It was like playing “Russian Roulette.” And then wondering if it had made its way into human food. It was awful.
I have forwarded the info on this recall to everyone I know that could be affected, and asked them to forward to their friends.
At least IAMS has not tried to hide this, I give them credit for that.
Many thanks to Pet Connection for continuing to keep us informed.
Comment by Marcy — June 10, 2010 @ 11:36 am
I just poured a bag of dry food into my cat food bin. In the bottom of the bag was a 1 oz. trial sample can of IAMS wet food 1/2012. I bought the Iams dry food at Petsmart yesterday.
Gina or Christie- does IAMS know they have these trials out there in dry food bags?
Comment by ericka — June 13, 2010 @ 5:36 am
p.s. it was the chicken PATE’
Comment by ericka — June 13, 2010 @ 5:36 am
They do know … it’s just almost impossible to get all this stuff pulled. That’s why getting the word out is so essential.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — June 13, 2010 @ 6:26 am
I wonder this “thiamine deficiency” could be related to complaints about other P&G/Iams products?
Comment by Rocky — June 13, 2010 @ 10:19 am
It is impossible to get all the stuff pulled which leads me to wonder why they werent testing the thiamine levels in their food. Considering Diamond had a recall for the same problem last year in their dry food, you would think it would be on the radar for other PFC’s to check for. I know there will be recalls and not everything can be caught, but this wasnt an unheard of problem. I would like to know why this is a problem, now with 2 different companies, and where they are getting their vitamin pre-mixes from.
Comment by Sandi K — June 14, 2010 @ 8:32 am
Another reason why these recalls are a problem, I was actually able to purchase recalled Iams wet cat food today. Ever since 2007, I check to make sure the stores I visit have all recalled food off the shelves. Well they didnt. I notified the manager and will be contacting Iams tomorrow. This was a big box store too so Im surprised they didnt have it punched into their system to generate a notice. I encourage people, if possible, to double-checks store shelves when you are out and about to make sure there is no recalled food still remaining.
Comment by Sandi K — June 17, 2010 @ 5:22 pm
I forgot to say too that this store was aware of the recall because initially they had all the food off the shelf. But for some reason, someone put it back later. Not good.
Comment by Sandi K — June 17, 2010 @ 5:26 pm
My gripe is why wasn’t there something put in local papers or on the news like the 2007 recall. Because most animal care givers buy in bulk, so how are we to know. I didn’t until I went to my petstore. The other issue is the 3 stores I went in, yes they’d taken the cans off the shelves but didn’t put up a sign stating why. I had to go on the internet to discover the whys.
Comment by maureen H — June 23, 2010 @ 7:59 am