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Konamouse
Member
07-16-2001
| Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 6:39 am
Pet food recall expanded on new finding By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - An industrial chemical that led to a nationwide recall of more than 100 brands of cat and dog foods has been found to contaminate a second pet food ingredient, expanding the recall further. The chemical, melamine, is believed to have contaminated rice protein concentrate used to make a variety of Natural Balance Pet Foods products for both dogs and cats, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. Previously, the chemical was found to contaminate another ingredient, wheat gluten, used by at least six other pet food and treat manufacturers. Natural Balance said it was recalling all its Venison and Brown Rice canned and bagged dog foods, its Venison and Brown Rice dog treats and its Venison and Green Pea dry cat food. The Pacoima, Calif., company said recent laboratory tests showed the products contain melamine. It believes the source of the contaminant was rice protein concentrate, which the company recently added to the dry venison formulas. Natural Balance does not use wheat gluten, which was associated with the previous melamine contamination, it said. Last month, Menu Foods recalled 60 million cans of dog and cat food after the deaths of 16 pets, mostly cats, that ate its products. The FDA said tests indicated the food was contaminated with melamine, used in making plastics and other industrial processes. Five other companies later recalled pet products also made with wheat gluten tainted by the chemical. The FDA has since blocked Chinese imports of wheat gluten. An FDA spokeswoman did not immediately return messages left seeking comment.
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Cdbga
Member
10-04-2004
| Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 8:36 am
I don't think the latest recalls have been added yet, but I wanted to post the link to the FDA's improved recall list site. You can either use the links in the list, or there is a searchable database as well, where you can search by Brand Name, UPC Code, Product Description, Container type or any combination of these. Here's the link: FDA Recall list & Searchable DB
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 9:18 am
Thanks to everyone for the updates.
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Cdbga
Member
10-04-2004
| Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 9:18 am
Here's another article about this: Fears grow on pet food - New findings expand the threat beyond wheat gluten." Notable in this article is the following: "Local veterinarians who've tracked kidney ailments nationwide have tentatively identified five more foods, not at this point under any recall, that they plan to have tested as soon as possible. The Veterinary Information Network, used by about 16,000 of the estimated 35,000 U.S. veterinarians, noticed the five foods kept recurring in vet-described disease reports, said Paul Pion, the Davis vet who co-founded the service. Pion said it would be premature to name the foods."
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 9:30 am
Can you please post the text of the article? A login is required, and I'm not willing to set up an account with the SacBee (even if it is free).
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Cdbga
Member
10-04-2004
| Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 9:39 am
Sure thing! Sorry,I didn't realize you had to log in, because I was already logged in when I linked to it. Here it is (I'm posting in smallest font because it is a LONG article): Fears grow on pet food - New findings expand the threat beyond wheat gluten. By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg - Bee Staff Writer Last Updated 12:08 am PDT Wednesday, April 18, 2007 The monthlong pet food recall expanded Tuesday with a troubling twist, for the first time involving foods that do not contain wheat gluten but still tested positive for a potentially lethal chemical. The finding makes it much tougher to tell people what to safely feed their pets and fuels suspicions that the chemical melamine is being deliberately added to some pet food ingredients to bolster apparent protein. Natural Balance, a Pacoima-based company, is "99.9 percent sure" that a rice protein made in Asia is responsible for the melamine detected Tuesday in some of its venison-based pet foods, company President Joey Herrick said. "It was pretty shocking," he said in a phone interview after the company recalled several of its venison foods. "I was livid." Herrick declined to name the supplier of the rice protein or the country it came from, saying only that a large American company acquired the ingredient for Diamond Pet Foods, which makes some Natural Balance products. Because both wheat gluten and rice protein enhance the protein content of pet food, "it certainly is suspicious" that melamine now is associated with both, said Bob Poppenga, a UC Davis veterinary toxicology professor. Melamine isn't an edible protein, but it has plenty of nitrogen, which can be used as a marker for protein in chemical analyses. So, if someone wanted to use less of the relatively pricey sources of vegetable protein, such as wheat gluten, and throw in cheaper starches instead, adding melamine to that mix would still make it look like a protein-rich product, numerous veterinary nutritionists and toxicologists have said. With such speculation swirling, the rice protein-melamine link further alarmed pet owners as it began appearing on Web sites Tuesday, said Gina Spadafori, a Sacramento-based author who runs a pet Web site. "I see people who are being almost panicky," she said. "Last week, it was easy for veterinary associations to say if you want to feel better, just avoid wheat gluten," Spadafori said. "Now for this expansion to be an entirely different protein source ... I don't think right now anybody can say, 'Go feed this, it's safe.' " Natural Balance President Herrick was so shaken by the melamine finding that he imposed a new policy Tuesday to hold all company foods in a warehouse until an offsite lab tests each batch for melamine. He won't ship anything until it has tested clean, he said. Local veterinarians who've tracked kidney ailments nationwide have tentatively identified five more foods, not at this point under any recall, that they plan to have tested as soon as possible. The Veterinary Information Network, used by about 16,000 of the estimated 35,000 U.S. veterinarians, noticed the five foods kept recurring in vet-described disease reports, said Paul Pion, the Davis vet who co-founded the service. Pion said it would be premature to name the foods. He hopes to get suspect food samples to the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory at UC Davis to start testing as early as today. As the recall expands, "my sense is it's time for every manufacturer to go testing for melamine," Pion said. The notion that melamine could be a deliberate additive -- not an industrial mistake -- arose as early as April 5, when Stephen Sundlof, head of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, said that the pet food recall could turn into a criminal investigation if investigators find that melamine was added deliberately. Later, the New York Times reported that the Chinese company that supplied tainted wheat gluten to Menu Foods sought to buy large amounts of melamine through Internet trading sites. More than 4,000 pet deaths have been reported on Spadafori's petconnetion.com site. Others have estimated recall-related deaths at hundreds to thousands of pets nationwide. All the 100 or so products recalled previously had involved wheat gluten, the vast majority of them dog food, cat food and treats manufactured for many labels by the Canada-based company Menu Foods. Amid complaints that the multiple recalls were hard to follow, the FDA tried to assemble all the recalled foods on a single list, now over 5,000 items long, on its Web site at www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/petfoodrecall/ As of Tuesday evening, the Natural Balance recalls hadn't appeared there. Natural Balance recalled two products Monday and added more Tuesday after learning of the melamine test results. It has pulled back Venison and Brown Rice canned and bagged dog foods, Venison and Brown Rice dog treats and Venison and Green Pea dry cat food. For pet owners, vets said, the important thing to be aware of is any behavior change that seems linked to either a new food, or even a new bag of the same food. Symptoms could include loss of appetite, vomiting, lethargy and excess drinking or urinating.
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 9:44 am
Any idea what other foods are being talked about in "Local veterinarians who've tracked kidney ailments nationwide have tentatively identified five more foods, not at this point under any recall, that they plan to have tested as soon as possible."
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Taterheadtwo
Member
09-29-2005
| Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 1:23 pm
sory if this has already been linked/posted , but as a pet lover/ owner i am coming here often to get more updated then so called mainstream media news websites, wish the goverment IF THEY ARE gonna get involded do soo ASAP STOP THE PARTISAN BS AND DIG IN asap , stop the sources allowing this, and so hope they dont turn it into a money freeforall to just line their pockets. tighter control is obviously needed, no way shoud prices go up , but sigh who wants to bet that they will go way up becuase congresss turns this into a pocket linning issue. i by in bulk so still have 2 weeks supply left ( i am also a push over, have 3 cats and i give them 3 different types of dry daily and one can of wet food daily.) so when i go to get re stocked , if i have to change most of what they like , i will have three cats hating me,lol. heres the web links i saw recently , again sorry if any al reposts: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070418/ap_on_he_me/pet_food_recall_6 http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html http://www.petconnection.com/
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Twinkie
Member
09-24-2002
| Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 8:45 pm
Don't know if this is the place to post this so I'll also post it in the cat thread. Free safe whiskas coupon: http://www.whiskas.com/safety/ I don't know where to look for that free stuff thread.
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Cdbga
Member
10-04-2004
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 7:55 am
The morning update - links and notes: 1. Both articles below contain info on how they suspect the melamine ended up in the rice protein - the reuse of dirty bags for shipment: - Wilbur-Ellis is saying the melamine contamination may have come from a single bag - FDA: Tainted pet food ingredient came from China So, by March 30th, melamine in wheat gluten from a Chinese supplier is identified as the cause of pet deaths/illnesses...and April 4th, Wilbur-Ellis receives a shipment where a melamine bag has been used to package rice protein, which is being sold for use in pet foods. The bag is a different color than the others and is marked melamine...but they still send it out to a pet food manufacturer. I don't know, even if they tested the bag at that moment and it was negative, I would still think that it might be something interesting to share with the FDA. "Hey, this rice protein we got from a Chinese supplier came in a bag marked melamine." Am I crazy to think that? Because even though they are saying now that their product tested negative for melamine at the time, it tested positive later. It made animals sick. I am just very very tired of these suppliers. 2. ASPCA: Crisis far from over. FDA must ID “all the contaminants” 3. How 2 pet food companies are responding: - P&G vows more control of Menu Foods - Iams offers free bag of food in response to the Menu Foods recall. 4. The Chinese Government continues to make the investigation easy ;) Despite FDA requests, they have not granted permission for FDA inspectors to enter China. 5. Regarding the 5 foods the VIN is testing, Paul Pion, who heads that service, has now said he has arranged the tests out of an "excess of caution.": "They are not strong patterns, but we don't want to miss anything," Pion said, adding that if he were sure that the foods were contributing to illness, he would already have named them. You can see the full article here: Vets wonder: What pet food will be safe?. (It is a Sacremento Bee article again, so I set up an account that any of y'all can use. The User Name & Password are TVCLUBHOUSE. So, when you click on the link, just enter that and you should be able to access the article. They really seem to be ahead of the pack on their coverage.)
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 8:53 am
OK, I'm now on a mission to find a local retailer for Pet Promise cat foods. They are all natural and they use family farmers (to sustain business and to ensure better quality food). If any protein additive is gonna be suspect, I'm gonna have to really start bringing a magnifying glass to read the danged fine print on these cans! BTW thanks for the SacBee login, CD! 
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Vacanick
Member
07-12-2004
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 8:57 am
Thank you Cdbga for keeping us all updated! 
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Happymom
Member
01-20-2003
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 10:06 am
I haven't been in the Hairball threads in a long time. I don't have time to read through this thread right now. This info/company/these brands may have already been mentioned. I did want to post this though. We have given our 12 year old dog Innov Senior and Evo for the past few years. Our 19 year old cats ate Innova for their past few years too. (They both died early last year.) I have faith in this company. They don't use wheat gluten and only use whole rice not rice protein concentrate. They do not use byproducts. It is expensive food and not available in the pet superstores or supermarkets or places like Target. There are several local places here that carry it though. We now only feed our dog Innov treats and human food for treats. I think feeding this high quality food helped our cats live as long as they did. Other than hip problems, our 12 year old 75 lb. dog is very healthy. I think feeding her very nutritious food has helped. http://www.naturapet.com/about-natura/news.asp?id=16
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Cdbga
Member
10-04-2004
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 11:30 am
Breaking News: Melamine in Corn Gluten Linked to South African Pet Illnesses. The recalled Royal Canin Food in South Africa appears to have had contaminated corn gluten. And it looks like this came from China, as well. You know y'all, I had read something in a blog about an industry insider saying we'd be seeing reports of contaminated rice & corn gluten coming out this week. But, I try to post the news and not just rumors I read (because I read a LOT of speculation). And now just a few days later, we've seen contaminated rice and corn gluten. I may start paying more attention to the speculation.
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Cdbga
Member
10-04-2004
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 12:53 pm
Blue Buffalo Spa Select has been added to the recall. From their release: "The Blue Buffalo Company has undertaken a voluntary recall of one production run of our Spa Select Kitten dry food. The production code on the recalled product is: "Best Used By Mar. 07 08 B." We have taken this action because the rice protein concentrate used for this run was obtained from Wilbur-Ellis, the same company who supplied this ingredient to Natural Balance."
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 1:55 pm
Good gawd. I'm about to go out and hook my own danged fish and make my own cat food. This is really getting ridiculous. I've been on the prowl trying to find a canned cat food that may be exempt from all of this. Pet Promise looked promising (no pun intended), but their list of ingredients are: quote:INGREDIENTS: Salmon, chicken, fish broth, chicken liver, brown rice, potato protein, carrots, potatoes, minerals [potassium chloride, dicalcium phosphate, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, cobalt carbonate, potassium iodide], locust bean gum, guar gum, salt, taurine, vitamins [choline chloride, Vitamin E supplement, thiamine mononitrate, Vitamin A supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, niacin, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin D-3 supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), folic acid, biotin]. AWC8
The I looked at the Wellness ingredients list: quote:Product Ingredients | Ingredient Index | Vitamins/Minerals Salmon, Chicken, Trout, Fish Broth, Ground Brown Rice, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Flaxseed, Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Cranberries, Blueberries, Squash, Zucchini, Garlic, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Iron Proteinate (a source of Chelated Iron), Beta-Carotene, Zinc Proteinate (a source of Chelated Zinc), Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Cobalt Proteinate (a source of Chelated Cobalt), Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Proteinate (a source of Chelated Copper), Folic Acid, Manganese Proteinate (a source of Chelated Manganese), Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Potassium Iodide, Biotin.
Finally, I looked at Merrick: quote:Ingredients: Sardine, Chicken Broth, Chicken, Whitefish, Lobster, Crab, Shrimp, Fresh Sweet Potato, Fresh Carrots, Fresh Peas, Dried Egg, Potato Starch-modified, Canola Oil, Olive Oil, Dried Cranberry, Cassia Gum, Carrageenan, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Tricalcium Phosphate, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Choline Chloride, Taurine, Mixed Tocopherols, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Iron Amino Acid Complex, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Copper Amino Acid Complex, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Acetate, Niacin, Lecithin, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide, Colbalt Glucoheptanate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Sodium Selinite. Ocean Breeze is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Cat Food nutrient profiles for all life stages.
And yeah, I'm totally confused!!! I'm thinking I'm gonna keep using the Wellness for now, since there's no other (obvious) sources of protein besides fish and chicken. Brandon Farms does use various protein additives but say they are from a US market. But do I trust that that US company makes their own wheat/corn/rice protein? Nope!
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Bonzacat
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 1:56 pm
Cdbga - can I send you a dozen roses? Thanks to you and everyone for the continuous updated information!
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Bonzacat
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 1:59 pm
I am just throwing this line out for everyone as an FYI. I had seen it for a while and paid no attention, thinking it was gimmicky. After reading some opinions, I find it's a very good line of pet food for dogs & cats. No recalled product ingredients. http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com/
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 2:26 pm
And not carried at any of the three independent pet stores near me!!! 
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Bonzacat
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 2:42 pm
Costa - darn!
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Cdbga
Member
10-04-2004
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 3:52 pm
Roses would be nice Bonza. Perhaps a mixed bouquet Just wanted to note that Blue Buffalo is one of the 5 companies that Wilbur-Ellis supplied rice protein to from that shipment. So that's 2 we've heard from (Wilbur-Ellis previously stated that 2 had tested and found no melamine). Also, I don't know that the FDA is buying that "dirty bag" story Wilbur-Ellis is selling. In a media-only teleconference today, they expressed that finding melamine in what is now 3 different protein sources makes it seem even more likely that this was done intentionally. I was reading along on a live-blogging of the conference, so I don't actually have any links for you, since there aren't any articles up yet.
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Cdbga
Member
10-04-2004
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 4:52 pm
*SIGH* More good news: Pet Food Recall Expands Again This has some content from today's FDA press conference. The "good news" I was referring to is the following: "In another development, it appears that some of the contaminated rice protein concentrate made its way in to hog feed. The extent of the problem isn't known. It's also not known if hogs fed the contaminated food have made it into the human food chain, the FDA reported. "We do understand that one of the companies that was manufacturing pet food had some pet food that was unfit for pets and it made its way into some hog feed," Sundlof said. "We are following up on that." Not sure what affect that would have if those hogs made it into the food supply. Great idea though "That's not fit to feed to pets...hey, I know, lets feed it to the hogs.". Could be safe for them, though...I guess...I am certainly not an expert on hogs. And, lets just hope that it wasn't fed to them because it was contaminated...lets hope that is was unfit in some other way...like the recipe was a little off...you know just something they couldn't sell...like the "irregular" clothes you can get at some outlets on the cheap.
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Supergranny
Member
02-03-2005
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 5:55 pm
We use Bil-Jac for our dogs thank heavens. Here is their web site. http://biljac.com/store/products/DSelM.asp I hope this helps.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 8:36 pm
Costa, Blue Buffalo also lists brown rice but that must really be gluten.. thankfully I haven't used their kitten food, but now, of course, I'm nervous.. I'm sure most of those are fine, but just warning that "brown rice" may well mean rice gluten, just hopefully from a non-contaminated source. ==== Is Wellness the one Costa really really liked??
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 8:55 pm
Costa perhaps one of the places that carried the chickensoup food delivers? I see Alpine, oh and El Cajon, Fallbrook and Escondido. Oh how about this one? My Beautiful Dog O Mat 3789 Park Blvd San Diego, CA, 92103 (619) 295-6140 Kahoots Feed & Pet 11965 Bernardo Plaze Dr Ste A San Diego, CA, 92128 (858) 487-3624 Point Loma Pet Pantry 3704 Voltaire St #108 San Diego, CA, 92107 (619) 222-1986 The Pet Pawlor 12540 Oaks N Dr San Diego, CA, 92128 (858) 673-1727 San Diego Pet Supply 4580 Federal Blvd San Diego, CA, 92102 (619) 263-2211 City Dog 545 Park Blvd San Diego, CA, 92101 (619) 269-0201 Pet Market #1 695 Saturn Blvd, Ste B San Diego, CA, 92154 (619) 575-7387 Pet Market #2 6165 El Cajon Blvd, Ste C San Diego, CA, 92115 (619) 286-3474 Oooh, they have it at Pet Supply, basically right across the street from me!! Seems to be a a gazillion independent stores, not the big chains.
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