If you’re a pet owner and buy canned or “wet” food, you should read about the Menu Foods recall after reports of kidney failure and deaths. According to this CNN/AP article, Menu Foods makes pet foods for all these companies from just two factories:
Iams; Eukanuba; America’s Choice; Preferred Pets; Authority; Award; Best Choice; Big Bet; Big Red; Bloom; Bruiser; Cadillac; Companion; Demoulas Market Basket; Fine Feline Cat; Shep Dog; Food Lion; Giant Companion; Great Choice; Hannaford; Hill Country Fare; Hy-Vee; Key Food; Laura Lynn; Loving Meals; Main Choice; Mixables; Nutriplan; Nutro Max; Nutro Natural Choice; Nutro; Ol’Roy; Paws; Pet Essentials; Pet Pride; President’s Choice; Price Chopper; Priority; Publix; Roche Bros; Save-A-Lot; Schnucks; Springsfield Pride; Sprout; Stater Bros; Total Pet; My True Friend; Western Family; White Rose; Winn Dixie and Your Pet.
This reminds me of my list of acceptable and unacceptable generic products. So much stuff is made at the same facility, it’s hard to figure out if you are actually getting better product by buying a brand name like Iams or Eukanuba. While the ingredients may be different, I would bet many of them are very, very similar. In this case, the recalled products were all made using the same wheat gluten.
While there are lots of good choices out there, we choose to buy Natural Balance dry food for our dog.
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Thanks for the heads up. While my dog’s food was on the list, its batch codes didn’t match. However, upon inspecting the label, it said “best used before date on can”. It appears that the Iams dog food I bought a week ago, at Target, is 2 1/2 years old. I’m a little perturbed and Iams will be getting a call from me since they guarantee their product.
ugh. i have a truckload of iams im going to have to sort through now. my dog is extremely picky and only eats iams or steak sraps. ha. oh well.
hey my wife demands we buy only natural balance too. still dont know why, but good to know it’s not the same as food lion brand, cause it aint cheap. i think she was an eight is enough fan
When I bought Nutro I thought it was made by Nutro and when I by Iams I thought it was made by Iams,
Only to find that one company is being asked to make all of these dog foods. I am like the person earlier, How do we know what we are buying ? We could be paying big bucks for the junk food.
Nutro and Iams will hear from me, also how can they monitor the production of their top end dog foods?
This is an example of Corporate greed at the very worst. For a few percentage points of a cent per can, Menu Foods appears to have killed many peoples’ pets.
My personal opinion, in light of Menu Foods not making any efforts to make this right so far, is that Menu Foods should no longer exist. Menu Foods should be taken to the Vet and put down. Its’ board of directors and its’ senior management should be required to eat Menu Foods products. They should also be forced to give every cent they have to animal support groups.
In the US, a corporation has the rights of a person, but none of the accountability. This needs to change – if you are going to make a profit, you should be accountable for any mess you make along the way. Contact your representation in Washington and demand that this change. If this does not change, then you know that your representation needs to be replaced as well.
Corporate greed is only restrained by what a given corporation thinks it can get away with. Closing the gap between what a corporation thinks it can get away with and what is legal is needed desperately.
Has anyone thought of this ? These “premium” pet food companies..Iams, Science Diet, Nutro..claim they are the best, and “they” make their food carefully, etc. They also claim they do not use horse meat for their products. But do they really import “New Zealand Lamb” or “Kangaroo” or “Free range chicken” from other countries? They have their foods produced by a Canadian Company. Canada is one of the worlds largest horse meat producers for human and pet consumption. The largest producer in Canada is Quebec. Menu Foods facility is very near Quebec. Similarity ? Also, why is a Canadian company relying on China for wheat gluten when Canada is a vast producer of wheat ?
Has anyone fed their cat Nutro Gourmet Classics “Chicken Caccciatore” “California Chicken Supreme Dinner” or the “Lamb and Turkey Cutlets Platter” in the 3 0z. can?
My cat was diagnosed with severe renal failure a few days after she had eaten this food for the first time. So far Nutro has only recalled their cat food in the pouches. I would like to know if any one else’s cat has become sick after eaten this particular brand out of the can.
Thanks
My Cat eats the 3 oz Nuro Max Cat cans, the Chicken Caccatorie and all the other flavors in the small cans. He eats 3 cans a day. He has been throwing up more latly. Some times he won’t eat a can and will ask for anouther flavor. Some times he loses his appitite all together. Yet he is picky and usually will only eat this brand.
All these cans have wheat glutten. Yet these cans are not on the recall while their pouchs are on the recall. I am concerned and don’t know what to do. I called Nutro and they said the UPC codes on my cans were safe. But what about all the cans he ate over the last few months? My vet said he is showing signs of liver issues. But over all he is ok for a 18 year old cat.
Gary
To see a news conference held by the CEO of Menu Foods, go to:
link
This should answer some of your questions regarding the recalls on pet food.
I wouldn’t trust anybody; ESPECIALLY the CEO of a pet food manufacturing company that clearly sees major lawsuits levelling their company. However, his statements can be used against him just like the politicians that talk out their you-know-whats!
And I think ALL of you have a point about purchasing expensive pet food yet wondering if you aren’t just paying more for the same thing you can get generically at Food Lion. Scarrrrrrry!!!
And as proof that you CANNOT believe EVERYTHING you hear or SEE, our local Channel 6, Orlando, Florida, ran footage that showed Nutro DRY dog/cat food footage and my significant other got HYSTERICAL because he thought that particular brand was also being recalled. I tried to explain to him that television stations use “stock footage” on any given subject when they need video, but he went ballistic anyway. I finally got a hold of a Producer at Channel 6 and after a “mia culpa” apology, he promised to declare a retraction on the eleven o’clock news indicating that Nutro brand DRY pet food was indeed NOT being recalled. I don’t know if it will in the future or if they will just show a different brand; either way it’s so wrong! NEVER go by the picture and NEVER go by the report. GO TO:
fda.gov and look up the most CURRENT list of recalled food. A VOLUNTARY recall of “SUNSHINE MILLS” DRY pet foods is also listed. Go to:
link
I would NEVER go on the record saying that the GOVERNMENT is any more right than a public corporation (especially with THIS administration)! However, I feel that this is the most credible, recent, correct and exhaustive site for recalled pet foods. Bookmark it and check it every day for additions. Don’t expect them to indicate what’s just been added; best to print out the pages (or cut and paste them into a Word document, then print) and compare the initial print out to what you are seeing on the screen.
If you are inclined to not trust ANY pet food company (as we are), give your picky kitties canned tuna (for humans). I know this is sometimes controversial, but we have at least four cats OVER the age of 18, yes, eighteen(!) that have had tuna their whole lives (two were kittens, two young adults when we got them) and are EXTREMELY HEALTHY! We have decided to purchase CHEAP cuts of steak and burger for our most finicky cats and dogs. And we purchased some whole chickens, cleaned out the fat (yuck; lots of fat!), roasted them then separated them into individual servings. This ought to last us until at least the end of the month (and for those of you with only one or two kitties, it should last you three months!) and we know, for the most part, what is going in them!
Remember, NOTHING is EVER 100 percent free and clear of any danger. We simply have to trust. It’s a shame and it’s heart-breaking when you hear that a beloved pet has passed because of the stupidity of a public corporation entrusted with the very lives you promise to protect. You can only do so much. Do whatever you think you can and know that whatever the outcome, you did what you thought was best. In the end, it’s all we can really do, right?
Good luck and God Bless all of you and your wonderful, loving pets. They all deserve the best and you guys and gals are a part of it! Bravo to you all too!!!
XOXO Shari and Richard, and Napoleon, Sampson, Pierre, Buddy, Baby-Doll, Ozzie, Shizaam, Baby, Dolly, Sissy, Jezabelle, Roscoe, Sheeba, Kee-Kee, Elvis, Rascal, Jazz-man, Powder, Foxy and Yetti (No kidding!!!) 🙂
Kellie – I have reason to believe that the kidney failure of one of my two-year-old cats may be due to the Nutro Max California Chicken Supreme. I only feed he and his brother that flavor and one other, but his brother doesn’t like and doesn’t eat the Choken formula very much, and is not, as far as I know at this point, sick like his brother.
fortunately my dogs only eat pedigree……
my golden retriever just passed away at 10 years of age. he was never sick or had any medical illnesses until eating happy tails dog food around 6 weeks ago. i don’t know if the food was on the list before it was pulled off pulled the shelf but he displayed all the symptoms from the recalled dog food. i don’t know if it was due to the dog food he consumed or a coincidence. we will miss him