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http://www.purina.com/company/.....purinafaqs
Updated FAQs – April 19, 2007
Do you use rice protein concentrate in any of your products?
* No. Nestlé Purina PetCare Company does not use rice protein concentrate in any of its U.S. or Canadian pet food products.
Do you source any other ingredients from the Chinese supplier of the rice protein concentrate in question?
* No.
Where do you source rice used in Purina brand pet foods?
* All rice used in Purina brand pet foods is sourced from North America.

……..Oops, they asked and answered the wrong question in number 2. Question should have been, do you source any other ingredients from China. We really don’t care about which supplier it came from as so far we’ve had 2 different ones.

…….so stay tuned I guess.

…..hope you’ll post back! I do have a hard time beliving, in this age of computers, why it would take so long to find that information in the database. That is good customer service to get your answer so quickly. Haven’t been to their website, but hope that they have that information front and center. Would save on phone calls and let their customers know that they understand the worries.

http://www.made-in-china.com/

http://www.purina.com/

They are elaborating on the wheat gluten and how they are dedicated to our pets’ health and nutrition, and go into details about everything you wanted to know about wheat gluten. I think we’ve all figured that one out and are staying away from it. No mention about the rice scare we’re having now or about their mysterious plant in China that they don’t know about. Be very careful with this company. They occupy a huge share of the foods out there in supermarkets that are reasonably priced for those feeding a multitude of assorted pets. They’ve evaded the wheat gluten issue before saying the rest of their stuff is good, then a few days later pulled Alpo cuts. They denied having a plant in China to me on the phone and are scampy on info that you’d be most likely to ask about.
Just a heads up on them; their remaining products may be good but buyer beware.

www.firstmate.com

No, the smoking gun here is that the pink bag proves the bagging facility bags both rice proteins AND melamines. The “dirty bag” theory discussed in the Forbes article posits that the bagger may have reused bags previously containing melamine to pack rice proteins, resulting in residual contamination of the rice from the dirty (reused) bags. This would be an obvious cost saving measure: say a run of melamine was accidentally put into the wrong bags. Instead of destroying the bags at a loss, you just empty them out, send ‘em over to the rice line where they belong, and repack the melamine in the proper (apparently pink) bags. A very plausible scenario, and no grand consipracy needed. Simple human error + a drive to keep costs low by any means = bad decisions that end up costing pets their lives.

The irony of this is that in most cases, decisions like this come back to bite the corporation which made them in the arse. Pet food companies are in the business of making money, and recalls/bad press/consumer outrage seriously cut into the bottom line. Therefore, American importers are going to be far LESS likely to do business with this supplier again, cutting their profitability instead of improving it. Short term cost slashing seldom if ever yields ling term corporate gains. What truly amazes me is that so many people running corporations still fail to “get” this. Perhaps it is because too many of them are paid on short term results, and seldom stick around long enough to clean up the long term messes they create.

Anyhoo, I just wanted to add a bit of perspective on the whole “pink bag” thing, and wish everyone whose pets may have been affected the best. My Boxer baby, Apollo, eats nothing but NB venison & brown rice (only thing that got rid of a year’s worth of pudding poop… *sigh*) and his kitty brother Cody eats a range of the NB cat products, including NB Venison & Green Pea dry. I tend to buy in bulk and stock up, so my supplies were purchased long before NB’s ill advised decision to tinker with their formula, and the critters are still happily chowing down. No, I’m not going to throw out every scrap of NB food in my house. It’s high quality food that keeps my animals in amazing condition. And yes, as soon as NB starts shipping clean batches again, I’ll be buying it. Am I annoyed that they changed an allergy formula, of all things, without at least letting people know ahead of time? You bet. Do I think they’re likely to do this again, after the way this turned out? Um, no. They do want to stay in business, after all, and this will have cost them a BUNDLE in both bottom line and customer base. So I feel pretty safe with NB for the forseeable future.

Love to all the pooches and kitties,

donna

“That our trying to leave no stone unturned and pay for the analysis of a few low probability foods has been misinterpretated and led to many letters that are mean and hateful is more upsetting that you can imagine.”

I am so sorry. Many people are in grief. Many are anxious. Most everyone is disgusted. Some think it is appropriate to lash out at anyone. Certainly after a month of not knowing anything, this latest event has pushed people way past the tipping point. I don’t even feed commercial food but I keep thinking about what it would be like to try to pick a “new” pet food based on what a company says or doesn’t say and what might happen tomorrow. I hope you can ignore these attacks and know that most people do not feel this way.

I feel the issue of labeling must be addresed by the AVMA. We must have current and truthful labels. Not knowing exactly what is in the bag or can is not only upping the anxiety but making people just plain crazy. We don’t have to wait for regulation change either. Pet people are asking for truth in this matter. Some statement backing this consumer driven issue by the AVMA would get us there faster. And certainly make diagnostics a bit easier for the veterinary community. It is obvious at this point that one cannot trust the label of any company, unless they explicitly state that the formulation will never be changed without a change in the label.

I commend you and the VIN community for stepping out of the box on this issue. I especially appreciate the pages from VIN professional pages that are accessible to the public (Promo page) and have passed them on to many people. Also your willingness early on to talk about “real” numbers is highly appreciated by the pet community, as the press is stuck on 16.

I’ve often held vets feet to the fire on some issues. This isn’t one of them. Taking the initiative to keep pets safe by doing something no one else is doing is commendable.

Miscommunication and noncommunication has figured prominently throughout this whole affair. Your willingness to clarify things is appreciated.

Thank you.