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How sad. And frustrating.
I am still feeding Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover (and dog Lover for Sugar). I only feed the kibble, not the canned. Their web site says they manufacture all their own dry pet foods. So it should be staying out of this recall mania.
Here is their web site:
http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com/
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggggggg ggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I recently switched to Chicken Soup dry, but white rice is listed as an ingredient. Because of the piecemeal way in which companies have been recalling products, I'm going to find something else.Quote:
Originally Posted by Freedom
Add Harmony Farms to the recall:
All Harmony Farms canned dog foods
All Harmony Farms canned cat foods
All Harmony Farms Health Bar biscuits
Sounds like anyone that uses American Nutrition, Inc. as a manufacturer will/should be recalling their canned food because ANI was supposedly adding rice protein concentrate to foods without authorization.
I recommend that everyone check Itchmo several times a day. The news media seems to have lost interest in keeping everyone up to date.
How do we find out which pet food brands use ANI for their wet foods or even their dry foods?
Answer to your question, unfortunately, when they get recalled. :(Quote:
Originally Posted by fragrancehound
Below is what I found on ANI's site, like I said above when they get recalled seems to run true in this companies case.
The corporate headquarters for American Nutrition is in Ogden, where 50% of the company tonnage is produced. Southwest Pet (a Phoenix subsidiary) produces 20% and Northwest Pet (a Woodland, Washington subsidiary) produces 30%. Products include contract manufacturing of pet foods, private label pet foods, as well as the formulation, preparation, packaging, and shipping of American Nutrition’s own brands. ANI also produces premium, biodegradable cat litter.
This from Blue Buffalo:
Due to a product-tampering incident, I regret to inform you that we are
recalling all BLUE dog can products, Spa Select cat can products and BLUE
Health Bars effective immediately. It is extremely difficult for us to make
this announcement as we spoke with many of you last week, before this
tampering incident was known, and assured you that only one production run
of Spa Select kitten dry food was unfit for consumption.
The product tampering came to our attention when American Nutrition, Inc.
(ANI), the manufacturer of our canned dog and cat foods and biscuits,
informed us that they had been adding rice protein concentrate to our canned
formulas without our knowledge or approval. Apparently this has been going
on for some time, and ANI only chose to inform us when the FDA began an
investigation of their rice protein concentrate supplies.
While this activity by ANI is in itself unlawful, the situation is further
complicated by the fact that ANI has been receiving rice protein concentrate
contaminated with melamine from Wilbur-Ellis.
So while no BLUE or Spa Select canned product has tested positive for the
presence of the melamine, and there have been no reported illnesses from our
canned foods, we have lost all confidence in the honesty and integrity of
ANI, and the products that they manufacture.
For this reason, we have decided to remove all of our canned foods and
biscuits from the retail market. While this may seem to some as a major
over-reaction, the Blue Buffalo Company was founded on the principle of
providing the highest quality and most nutritious pet foods available to our
pet parents. Anything less is not acceptable.
The obvious question is how could Blue Buffalo not know that ANI was
altering the formulas by putting in an ingredient such as rice protein
concentrate. The simple answer is we trusted ANI as a partner. They
deliberately deceived us and betrayed our trust.
In the end, it all comes down to integrity. ANI has not been honest with us
or with pet parents who trust BLUE, so we are going to temporarily stop the
production and sale of all cans and biscuits until we can provide you with
products that are exactly what we say they are.
I don't know if anyone has posted this since there are many threads on the recalled food subject, but it comes from the VetPet Digest:
The AVMA website has a list that seems easy to navigate. It's updated
daily, although I don't see the Blue Buffalo foods on it yet (the ones that
were just pulled).
AVMA food recall page:
http://www.avma.org/aa/menufoodsrecall/default.asp
AVMA list of recalled foods page:
http://www.avma.org/aa/menufoodsrecall/products.asp
Another site, where they are keeping track of the pet foods that have NOT
been recalled is here:
http://www.thepetfoodlist.com
I know I've read on other sites/articles this chineses company says "there is no problem" BS
China wont let FDA inspectors have visa's to come in and inspect. If there wasnt a problem then why not let them in the country? They are so wrong. :(
***************************************
Wilbur-Ellis Voluntarily Recalls Rice Protein Concentrate
SAN FRANCISCO – April 18, 2007 – Wilbur-Ellis Company is voluntarily recalling all lots of the rice protein concentrate the San Francisco company’s Feed Division has shipped to pet-food manufacturers because of a risk that rice protein concentrate may have been contaminated by melamine, an industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers that can lead to illness or fatalities in animals if consumed.
Wilbur-Ellis noted that it obtained rice protein from a single source in China and shipped to a total of five U.S. pet-food manufacturers located in Utah, N.Y., Kansas and two in Missouri.
Last Sunday, April 15, Wilbur-Ellis notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that a single bag in a recent shipment of rice protein concentrate from its Chinese supplier, Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd., had tested positive for melamine. Unlike the other white-colored bags in that shipment, the bag in question was pink and had the word “melamine” stenciled upon it. Wilbur-Ellis separated that bag and quarantined the entire shipment for further testing and since that time, no further deliveries of rice protein concentrate have been made. Samples from the white bags tested negative for melamine. However, subsequent and potentially more sensitive tests by the FDA came back positive for melamine, leading Wilbur-Ellis to voluntarily issue the recall.
Wilbur-Ellis began importing rice protein concentrate from Binzhou Futian Biology Technology in July 2006. A total of 14 containers holding 336 metric tons of rice protein concentrate were sent from Futian to Wilbur-Ellis. Wilbur-Ellis has distributed 155 metric tons to date.
On Monday (April 16), a pet food distributor issued a voluntary recall of its pet food, believing the source of contamination to be rice protein concentrate supplied by Wilbur-Ellis. As an additional precaution, Wilbur-Ellis is urging all pet food manufacturers using rice protein concentrate supplied through Wilbur-Ellis to recall any pet food that may be on supermarket shelves.
Consumers with questions about the pet food they use should visit the FDA Web site at www.fda.gov.
The Chinese government gave approval for travel into China to the FDA inspectors earlier this week. They must have been under tremendous pressure - and dragging their feet must have given the malign companies that tainted the food some time to clean things up.
Totally agree now they are squeeky clean. Glad the FDA was given visa's but it's little to late :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Lizzie
Why hasn't this whole situation made more news? The media covered more of Anna Nicole's death than they have covered this entire recall mess. :mad:
Quote:
Originally Posted by kb2yjx
I don't know why your vet didn't recieve notice from Royal Canin. We got a fax from them, and they even voulunteered to pay for the lab work for concerned pet owners. Does your vet keep up his contact info with his food suppliers and the AVMA??
As to many of these recalls, mostly they concern the canned and pouch (which I've never liked pouch foods anyways, too much salt & preservatives) anyways, only a few are recalling dry food.
Many of these companies are pulling foods not because of any ACTUAL problem but as a PRECAUTION against any potential law suit happy pet owners.
I am feeding Hills Science Diet (Dry & some canned, no chunks) and Royal Canin Veterinary Diet (but not the recalled ones. I have had no problems and have no intentions of switching foods.
Out of our client base, we've only had a dozen kidney issues since this whole recall thing started, and in all the cases it was not caused by the food, but other health/age related issues. We only had one client with a sick cat that wanted lab work out of concern for the food, and the cat tested normally and the food she was feeding was not on the recall list past or present.
I don't know if we are just fortunate to not have been involved in shippments of the suspected foods, or if my instinct is correct that companies are getting jumpy and pulling food out of fear of being sued.
JMHO
KAK, as far as I know, Hills Prescription Z/D is (still) okay. However, here's a perhaps cautionary tale.. last week a local vet called our cat shelter and told us that a cat patient of hers that had just been started on Z/D went into kidney failure.
I don't know if this means that Z/D might be contaminated also or if it was a reaction of this one cat due to other factors. The Hills company has not recalled it, and we have heard of no other incidents anywhere involving Z/D.
However, we aren't taking chances. One of our cats has been on Z/D (both dry and wet) for a long time and has done well with it, but we immediately took her off it and got rid of all our Z/D. She is now getting Royal Canin SO until we know more. Some of the other cats have been getting SO for a while, and while some Royal Canin products have been recalled, SO is still supposedly okay. (And how many times have we thought that about how many foods?)
KAK, I apologize for being the bearer of such alarming news, but you might want to run this by Starr's vet. This was just one vet here talking about one cat, but I guess we should all be on the alert.
My own cats are finishing up the food we have here, which none of them seems to have had trouble with, but after it's gone I don't know what I'll get them.
The itchko and AVMA sites look like good resources to check regularly.
Best wishes to KAK and all of us for keeping all our babies healthy.
Pat
Quote:
Originally Posted by krazyaboutkatz
[QUOTE=phesina]KAK, as far as I know, Hills Prescription Z/D is (still) okay. However, here's a perhaps cautionary tale.. last week a local vet called our cat shelter and told us that a cat patient of hers that had just been started on Z/D went into kidney failure.
I don't know if this means that Z/D might be contaminated also or if it was a reaction of this one cat due to other factors. The Hills company has not recalled it, and we have heard of no other incidents anywhere involving Z/D.
However, we aren't taking chances. One of our cats has been on Z/D (both dry and wet) for a long time and has done well with it, but we immediately took her off it and got rid of all our Z/D. She is now getting Royal Canin SO until we know more. Some of the other cats have been getting SO for a while, and while some Royal Canin products have been recalled, SO is still supposedly okay. (And how many times have we thought that about how many foods?)
Thanks for letting me know about this. Starr saw the vet on Sunday and so far the Hills Z/D is safe.
Here's what I saw on Hill's Website:
April 18 - Update: Hill's products not affected by rice protein concentrate recall.
On April 17 the FDA announced a further pet food recall associated with melamine contaminant, reportedly from a supplier of rice protein concentrate. No Hill's products are affected by this recall.
While Hill's uses rice protein concentrate in 4 of its products, we do not use the supplier involved with the recall.
Hill's has tested its ingredients and these tests show no melamine is present in the rice protein concentrate that it uses.
Q. Do any Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc. products contain rice protein concentrate?
A. Yes. Four Hill's products contain rice protein concentrate; however, none contain rice protein concentrate from the supplier associated with this recent recall.
The four Hill's products that contain rice protein concentrate AND ARE NOT affected by recent recall announcements:
Prescription Diet ® z/d® Feline Dry
Prescription Diet ® k/d® Canine canned
Science Diet® Lamb Meal and Rice Recipe Puppy Large Breed
Prescription Diet® h/d® Canine Dry
Hill's has tested its ingredients and these tests show no melamine is present in the rice protein concentrate used in our products.
Q. How do you know Hill's rice protein concentrate is safe?
A. Upon immediately learning about the presence of melamine in another supplier's rice protein concentrate, we tested our ingredients and have confirmed that the rice protein concentrate ingredient from Hill's suppliers do not contain melamine.
Q. Where does Hill's Pet Nutrition Inc. get its rice protein concentrate?
A. Hill's uses two suppliers, neither of which are involved in this rice protein concentrate recall.
Q. What is rice protein concentrate, and why is it used in pet food?
A. Rice protein concentrate is the product remaining after starch has been washed away from rice. It is a commonly used protein ingredient in various pet food products.