Pet food re-call in North America

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  1. #11

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    Guys & gals...bummer news today. Recall just extended to one brand of dry cat food:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070331/...oMvZlSeVis0NUE

    Separately, Hill's Pet Nutrition recalled its Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food. The food included wheat gluten from the same supplier that Menu Foods used.

    At this point, to be on the safe side, I would advise to stay away from any Menu Foods products. No matter what the HK statement letter says, it might still have been imported somehow into HK.


  2. #12

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    Even more confusing...they're now not even sure what's causing the kidney failures...

    FDA announced yesterday that they had NOT found any aminopterin (the rat poision) in the recalled products, but are now looking at melamine (used as a slow-release fertilizer in Asia) as the culprit. The absence of the poision was confirmed in a separate test by Cornell University.

    This is contested by New York State Food Laboratory & Animal Health Laboratory (Canada) which maintain they found aminopterin in the tainted products.

    Ontop of all this, it's not known how melamine affects cats & dogs (it's not even considered a known toxin).
    So...we still don't know what's happening here.


  3. #13

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    watch out for Nestle Purina brands too... so scary


  4. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by goleoboy:
    watch out for Nestle Purina brands too... so scary
    Yup, just released today. However, Purina has limited their recall to one type of wet food (Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food, bearing date codes from 7037 to 7053).

    So far, all the food types recalled by the major brands have been wet food (Cut and Gravy type). There's only been one dry food recall which is Hill's Pet Nutrition Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food.
    Last edited by nina_70; 01-04-2007 at 11:30 AM.

  5. #15

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    Today's update. They've traced the melamine-contaminated wheat gluten to the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. of Peixian, China. It's still not understood (or even certain) why melamine is causing pet deaths, but this is the current route they're taking.

    For those who don't know wheat gluten is used as a binder/stabilizer in some pet foods. You can check the label on your pet food to see if it has "wheat gluten" in the listed ingredients.

    Last edited by nina_70; 02-04-2007 at 02:15 PM.

  6. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by nina_70:
    Today's update. They've traced the melamine-contaminated wheat gluten to the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. of Peixian, China. It's still not understood (or even certain) why melamine is causing pet deaths, but this is the current route they're taking.

    For those who don't know wheat gluten is used as a binding/stabilizer in some pet foods. You can check the label on your pet food to see if it has "wheat gluten" in the listed ingredients.
    And this is still only for wet food and one type of dry food? Nothing new to add to the list? I'm still feeding my little coughing puppy Science Diet, Nutro and some wet food(canned food, Royal Cairn or something like that).

  7. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by sunniefaith:
    And this is still only for wet food and one type of dry food? Nothing new to add to the list? I'm still feeding my little coughing puppy Science Diet, Nutro and some wet food(canned food, Royal Cairn or something like that).
    Correct...so far, nothing else on the list. Most of the recalls are wet "cut and gravy"-type (foils, pouches, some cans) foods, and then the one dry cat food I mentioned above.

    If you're worried, check the ingredients on your current products to see if "wheat gluten" is on the ingredients list. "wheat" or "wheat flour" is fine...right now they think it's specifically the gluten from the Chinese factory which is causing the problem. At least, that's the current news (which is the best info we have).
    Last edited by nina_70; 02-04-2007 at 02:25 PM.

  8. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by nina_70:
    Correct...so far, nothing else on the list. Most of the recalls are wet "cut and gravy"-type (foils, pouches) foods, and then the one dry cat food I mentioned above.

    If you're worried, check the ingredients on your current products to see if "wheat gluten" is on the ingredients list. "wheat" or "wheat flour" is fine...right now they think it's specifically the gluten from the Chinese factory which is causing the problem. At least, that's the current thinking (which is the best info we have).
    Thanks heaps! Puppy is already a little sick...don't want to get her even sicker!

  9. #19

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    home cooked pet food

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/bu...html?ref=media

    has some more updates on the food recall and interesting article on more people home cooking for their pets from pet cookbooks

  10. #20

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    BLI - interesting article! There's also been a rise in cat-owners who make home-food for their cats. Actually it's been a growing trend for a few years (but obviously a big uptick recently after all these recall issues!). Still, home-cooking for pets is not easy & you have to worry about getting them a balanced diet...making sure the food is not contaminated...etc, etc.

    I've always been interested in food that's natural or as close to natural as possible for myself & my cats. A few years back we switched away from all the big commercial brands and use smaller ones where we've researched the ingredients (Natural Balance, Azmira, Innova, Organix). I know Natural Balance makes a very good dog food as well. If any of you are interested let me know where you live and I'll tell you the nearest place that sells 'em (I actually wrote to the company in the US to get the full list of stores they supply in HK...that's how crazy I am ).

    Last edited by nina_70; 04-04-2007 at 12:25 PM.