Recall Update: Monday-Tuesday
Tuesday
Due to a technical problem, we were down most of Monday. So here’s what you missed.
We are going through the reports of reimbursements and post highlights tomorrow.
Also from Monday: How important is salvage pet food to hog farmers?
Monday
It’s been more than 3 months since the first of the melamine recalls were announced. We’re still collecting your experiences with filing for reimbursements from pet food companies. Please send us your stories.
Looking Back:
Here’s are some posts from the first days of the recall:
- The first analysis of the recall impact.
- Menu Foods’ first press release since recall angers Itchmo.
- We discover Iams’ exclusive contract with Menu Foods.
Related News: Deja vu all over again - FDA investigated toothpaste risk 10 years ago. Highlights after the jump.
Add Itchmo New To Your Site: Keep other pet owners informed with recalls and other pet news with our widget. The widget will update automatically with the latest headlines. Get it here.
Check out our non-recall news below. And as always, we’ll keep covering all pet news.
Also, if you have questions or need help, try our ItchmoForums. Get your questions answered by great pet owners.
Highlights from the New York Times via International Herald Tribune:
After a drug ingredient from China killed dozens of Haitian children a decade ago, a senior American health official sent a cable to her investigators: find out who made the poisonous ingredient and why a state-owned company in China exported it as safe, pharmaceutical-grade glycerin.
The Chinese were of little help. Requests to find the manufacturer were ignored. Business records were withheld or destroyed.
The Americans had reason for alarm. “The U.S. imports a lot of Chinese glycerin and it is used in ingested products such as toothpaste,” Mary Pendergast, then deputy commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration, wrote on Oct. 27, 1997. Learning how diethylene glycol, a syrupy poison used in some antifreeze, ended up in Haitian fever medicine might “prevent this tragedy from happening again,” she wrote.
The FDA’s mission ultimately failed. By the time an FDA agent visited the suspected manufacturer, the plant was shut down and Chinese companies said they bore no responsibility for the mass poisoning.
Sound familiar?
In a global economy, ingredients for drugs are often bought and sold many times in different countries, sometimes without proper paperwork, all of which increases the risk of fraud, the authorities say.
The Panama poison passed through five hands, the Haitian poison six. In both cases, the factory’s original certificate of analysis, attesting to the contents of the shipment and its provenance, did not accompany the product as it moved around the world.
(Thanks carmamil)
June 19th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
plus she wanted to me to feed one of their renal formula diets, of course!
June 19th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Of course—-I know my anal vet is not educated. I am educating him on german shepherds and the pet food recall. He is a keeper, and lives down the road from me.
June 19th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
– people seem to have, and i am not sure it’s not an image entirely fostered by the fda themselves, at least they rarely talk about it, this mistaken notion that the fda has legions of scientists who test everything, especially drugs that they ‘ regulate’. this has never been so. –
As somneone put it a few weeks ago, the history of the FDA IS WRITTEN ON TOMBSTONES a/k/a Risk assessment!
June 19th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
I wish they would hurry up and get the bottom of the acetaminaphen issue. What is going on with waiting about that?
June 19th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Trudy Jackson at 3:18 pm
What is going on is they are waiting to see if people space out and forget about it.
The Rich Mans way of solving problems.
June 19th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Oh Steve. how true!
Well, We won’t let them forget will we? Grrrrrr.
June 19th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
I’l put this out there again. Has anyboby, is anybody going to Call the FBI or someone, with test copies in hand and tell them Acetaminophen was found in FOOD? {even if these are pet food}
And who knows IF it’s in any Human food. Heard about/seen anything about anyone Testing *our* food for it???! {oh yeah, that’ll take about 3 months!}
Well Gee {snark} maybe the CDC should watch for increase of Liver issues as they were quitely asked to watch for an increase in Kidney issues recently.
It’s obvious no one is gonna do anything about this in an official capacity.
Well xcept repeatedly ask for the Sample from Expertox. See if they tested OTHER sample of food “on their own”, then they’d Know they have a “problem”. And we wouldn’t want that Right?
See, they can him and haw about the Expertox samples for weeks while doing nothing, on their OWN!
*How many* of those samples DID they test for their FDA Negative call? {wrong Lots etc.} 4-5-6? No matter. They passed judgement. And WE are Nutz.
And it’s a Damned Shame there is No HotLine Alert notification for Vets to get in Emails or Regular mail about anything {ANYTHING!} current.
Even ’suspect’, should make them all Consider it and WATCH and Report.
Grrrrrrrrr!
June 19th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Hey gang, what would it take for US to set up a Citizens Commission on these things?
Any Ideas?
{I could do “anger management” LOL! }
June 19th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Ut Oh! 2 Grrrrrrrrs! LOL
I didn’t See that Trudy! LMBO
June 19th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Duane-o fights back:
http://www.petfoodinstitute.org/
“FDA found no presence of acetaminophen in its samples whatsoever.”
“no presence” and “whatsoever” are in bold face this afternoon. Still no Press Release with or without Texas expert quotes anywhere on the web….
While you’re talking to Elvis, Duane-o, why not ask him if PFI can use “Are You Lonesome Tonight” as their official song? Without everybody’s $, all of you must be!
June 19th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Ok, since PFI seems to read here and publish the contrary to what WE’VE found in testing; What if we say We haven’t found any, do ya think they’ll publish THEY HAVE?! Ahahahahaha! NOT!
They must be having slow days there, that they have to be current on topics by reading here. Ya Think?!
Very sad games they play with life.
So this must mean that there IS a *Criminal* putting Acetaminonphen In foods sporatically Right?
Can we call the COPS NOW?
June 19th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
From the FDA site on June 15: “FDA Releases New Software Tool to Help Keep Food Facilities Safe from Attack .”
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/.....01652.html
“The name of the risk assessment software is derived from the acronym CARVER, which refers to six attributes used to evaluate targets for attack.
Criticality: What impact would an attack have on public health and the economy?
Accessibility: How easily can a terrorist access a target?
Recuperability: How well could a system recover from an attack?
Vulnerability: How easily could an attack be accomplished?
Effect: What would be the direct loss from an attack, as measured by loss in production?
Recognizability: How easily could a terrorist identify a target? ”
Apparently, all the food industry needs is a computer program to keep our and our pets’ food safe. Don’t you feel loads better?
June 19th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Does anyone know about this food? Has anyone used it ?
http://www.miraclemix.com/index.html
June 19th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Chris: The ingredients of the buffalo dry food is interesting. How did you find this food? What is jicama?
Buffalo meat, tapioca, jicama, yams, pumpkin, peas,
chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols),
flaxseed, suncured alfalfa meal, blueberries,
cranberries, kelp, eggs, mangosteeen, Reishi
mushroom, turkey tail, artichoke, garlic, parsley,
kale, full-spectrum chelated minerals and vitamins
June 19th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
YaYa, I’m ready to do anything it takes to get to the truth. where the hell did the Acetaminonphien go? I want to know!
June 19th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Just so you all know…..& don’t ask me why…..but when I attempted to go to that miracle mix website, two of my security programs popped up & told me not to go to this website, danger was flashing in red letters. I checked & it had the website listed correctly. It’s some kind of phony website. Didn’t go into any detail so I can’t tell you any more than that but I decided to come back here instead…..thought I’d mention it as a point of interest.
June 19th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Pukanuba–hmmm—that is weird. You know.I thought it was to good to be true. I will find out if it is a legitimate web site. thanks for the info–still on a quest for a good food.
June 19th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
re; miracle mix web site- I took a look at the ingredient list and was highly skeptical.Cats are obligate carnivores and while they do require a certain amount of fibre I would think they don’t really need 3 different types of starches(tapioca,jicama,yams) as are listed for the cat food ingredients.Do a google on mangosteen - the wikipedia site listed polyphenol as one of the components of mangosteen -at least at some point in it’s development - phenols are poisonous to cats - and the jury’s still out on garlic (and onions) for both cats and dogs - while a little may not hurt ,too much can cause a fatal type of anemia (heinz body anemia)
June 19th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Todays Syracuse New York newspaper has an interesting article on Honey imported from China and what Senator Schumer is proposing to do about it. http://www.syracuse.com/articles/news/index.ssf?
I emailed Schumer asking him to support COOL all I got in return was a form email.
June 19th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Oh yes the honey has rice sugar in it and a banned antibiotic.
June 19th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
I called and spoke to one of the owners at Miraclemix. The gentleman answered ALL of my questions re their dog food. He is an animal nutrionist. He sounds like he knows his dog food. I may order some samples for my dogs. FYI– this is a legitimate web site.
Thanks Chris for the website!
June 19th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Stella–I know nothing about cat food, but the buffalo dry sounds good. I don’t know–so many foods out there–yikes. Who knows anymore. If I had one dog they would be on home cooked food for sure. This is bull!
June 19th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Barb: Thanks for info on that website. I wasn’t sure what was going on as that has never happened to me before. Not just one of my security programs but two. Something on that website must have set something off.
Glad you called & got more info. Didn’t mean to alarm you, just wanted to give you a heads up.
June 19th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Pukanuba–no problem—thanks for keeping us informed! The ingredients seem a bit too rich for me..oh well. We’ll see. Back to the drawing board.
June 19th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Pukanuba,
Freaked me out for a sec. Glad it’s ok.
Barb, thanks for checking on it. I may check it out as well.
June 19th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
I sounds fairly good Chris, says tho “a division of Georgia Pet Food”. I found Nothing on any Georgia Pet Food {company?}. I’d find out more about this “aspect” about them. Make sure they aren’t part of Diamond or anything.
Jicama, is a mexican veggie. sort of like a potato. I like them peeled and in strips and with a salad dip- they are Crunchy!
I think that have alot of starch. Fairly cheap veg. and usually Large in size. Bigger than yor hand. Brown outside, white flesh inside.
Anyone else find anything on a”Georgia Pet Food”??
IF they prove to be Legit and Tainted Free in any way, the Grainless is interesting to me.
June 19th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
I’ll check that out, YaYa. But please don’t give cats anything with onion in it. even baby food. Very dangerous.
June 19th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Trudy, my Cat loves garlic but doesn’t get very much in the wet I make. Did this MiracleMx have onion in it?! I missed seeing that. My cat would probable not like something with onion anyway. hmmmmmm.
And someone mentioned mangosteen, I’ve never heard of that one at all. They mentioned it was not good either.
On another topic, has anyone heard of this Simmons “private label” Pet food cannery? I think it must be in the South too, as it came up when I was looking for the Georgia Pet Food thing.
Wonder just who their “private label” customers are?
June 19th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
On the CARVER FDA thing, wonder how many Bells have to RING to set the Whole thing off? Have we hit the bell ringer YET?! :-P
Also looks to me that 3 of the 6 categories, lean towards or are interested In the “Financial direction” for “damage” etc. Meaning, the folks *who Make the Foods* and what They Sustain. {and their recovery from}
Not so much the “victims” of any such catastrophy/experience.
Same old same old.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
OK, now i’m off on My hunt.
The news did say We had a ton of toys from China this year that was recalled. And the eye balls that You can get at the doller tree were filled with kerocine. Nice for kids huh?
Also, a part of Gates County, where My girls live has a huge fire going on. so i’ve been on the phone with them, all is ok where they live.
So, now i’ll look and see if i can find anything.
June 19th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Barb,
jicama is sort of like a mexican potato. Has a bit of a sweet taste to it. They are great on salads. I happen to have on in the frig. Wondering if they are good for dogs???
June 19th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
I’m wondering why I can’t find anything on Georgia Pet Food Co. I can only guess that perhaps this is one of the big PF companies trying to pull a fast one. I believe they will put out food under other names knowing that we’re boycotting their stuff. They’ll get us to buy one way or another. Or so they think.
I think I’ll stick with my cooking & a little bit of dry for now. I’ve been doing well with the small companies & I think I’ll stick with them. Anything that I’ve never heard of before gets me to wondering if this is one of the biggies under a new name.
June 19th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Barb,
Never mind. YaYa already answered the questions about jicama’s.
I’m on a search for good kibble.
June 19th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
YaYa $ Pukanuba–I found out something i didn’t even know. There is a place in Ga. and right here in N.C. good lord. It’s called , Summit Pet Products. Lots of info on these
http://www.cnn.com/2005/us/12/.....index.html
http://www.summitpet.com/companyprofile.aspx
If these don’t come in I’ll email them to one of you, and you can put them down.
June 19th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Some more
http://www.stockhouse.com/medi.....id=8571579
http://www.stockhouse.com/news.....hyear=2007
June 19th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
Cant find anything on Georgia Pet Food Co. But in searching, found this.
http://www.nexusmagazine.com/a.....food2.html
June 19th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
regarding starches in dry food–unfortunately any dry formula has to have starch of one sort or another to hold the food together. From what I’ve read, anything less than 50% starch (more than 50% meat) will just fall apart, no matter how it’s cooked. So any dry food that is made without grain will be made with another starch–potato (Evo) & tapioca (Nature’s Variety Instinct) are the two biggies right now for the grain free foods. They may be grain free but definitely not carb free!
I never read all that about potatoes as cancer-causing before I looked at that site a few minutes ago, but I did hear thay can be a problem for dogs with arthritis or joint problems. Something about the chemicals in potatoes binding with necessary nutrients that affect bone & cartilege.
June 19th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
From Duane,
“With respect to the announcement of the detection of acetaminophen in some pet food products is being investigated by the industry as well as FDA, and FDA testing found no presence of acetaminophen in its samples whatsoever.”
http://www.petfoodinstitute.org/
———————————————————————–
Hey Duane, got a few questions for you.
1. Is that the same FDA that believes 16 pets have died?
2. Is that the same FDA that told us (repeatedly) that the existing food supply was safe, and then there was another recall, and another, and another?
3. Is that the same FDA that told THEIR employees to feed “natural” food?
4. How much food have YOU tested?
June 19th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Pukanuba–that’s funny you got the warning banners on that website. For the last 3 weeks, whenever I access any webpage on the Itchmo site, my spam blocker puts either a big yellow or red banner across the top of the page, “warning this site could be a scam, proceed with caution!
June 19th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
One pet food company in Ga. is called -Summit Pet Products Inc.
The other one is–
Red Bandanna Pet Food - alpharetta, Ga.
June 19th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
cats are generally known to be allergic to onions-or so ive been told by my vet and the rescue people who i adopted my torties from. i have to check the baby food i get for them in case. (i guess the rescue people use baby food to lure out feral cats theyre trying to catch to fix.)
June 19th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
re; the miraclemix thingy - I’ve done some surfing and possibly miraclemix/georgia pet food is basically just a retailer selling what could be “Great Life Pet Foods”
check out these links and see what conclusions you come to:
http://www.greatlife4pets.com/
http://www.1doctorschoice.com/.....gFood.html
http://www.healthyplanetrx.com.....canine.htm
June 19th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
YaYa, was it any help? The Red Bandana? In Ga.?
June 19th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
And there is a division of diamond Pet food in Ga.
June 19th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Ya Ya & Chris–thanks for the info. I spoke to the dude at the Georgia pet food company. His name is David, he is one of the owners. He said his company is small. He said he gets all his meat from the local farmers. I was on he phone with him for a long time. He sounds like he knows his dog food. I told him I was feeding Canidae and he said that was not a bad food. Good thing!!!!! Who knows what he is saying is true. I asked him about Innova Evo dry and he said it was a good food as well. The buffalo dry food he is selling sounds good to me–but…I’m afraid of diet change–shoot–I even hate changing husbands! hehehe me bad.
June 19th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Stella–I will check it out. I want to see if there is any relation. He does have a lot of products he wants to sell to you. He knew a lot about the german shepherd breed–until he said “I hope your dogs are not American Bred”. Um, excuse me, but they are!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :o) Then we really started talking……ahhhhhhhh
June 19th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Anything with onion in it will make a cat anemic.
June 19th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Who asked about the Mangosteen?
http://en,wikipedia.org/wiki/
June 19th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
I have a whole bunch of things saved. all of the things i tried to send. write to Me privetly and I’ll send them to you. My email has already been out there.
By the way, I have had some very strange phone calls. I can’t understand what they are saying and sll that?? what’s that about?
And don’t forget to write Me your stories about all you’ve been through.
magesticats@netchange.com
June 19th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Stella–I checked out all three sites and they are the same foods. It’s really strange. One says they ship from Californa, but yet the only guys ships from Georgia–me staying away from them.
Chris–let me know when you find a good kibble.