azgundog wrote: Fromms: Since 1904, The Fromm Family has maintained a tradition of quiet innovation dedicated to the health and nutrition of animals. In the 1930's, The Fromm Family introduced the first canine distemper vaccine. In 1949, we introduced the concept of premium pet food to the public. As the country's first and oldest premium pet food company.
There is one company - I am sure there are more if you go research like I do.
I am fully aware that US ingredients can have issues but our standards are higher than stuff coming in from China as long as the US based companies/ingredients are following procedures.
I am not looking for an argument - there are US companies out there if people do there homework and make calls to the companies instead of saying oh well they made a mistake.
Maybe Fromm's foods are made/sourced from the US -- now. That wasn't always the case. Up until about April 2009 all of Fromm's canned foods were sourced and manufactured in China. They only changed that following the big 2007 recall. At that point pretty much anyone who knew anything about pet food wouldn't touch their canned products, so they had little to no choice but to return to the U.S.
Look far enough into any company's history -- assuming they've been around long enough to have a history to look into -- and it's pretty easy to find something questionable or downright wrong with just about any of them. And of course the same is true with just about all suppliers of human foods and medicines, too.
Me and the DH
Two boys and two dogs (and two cats who prefer to stay home)
2008 Forest River Georgetown 350DS (bunkhouse model)
2001 Honda CR-V
Quote: BCSnob on 04/13/12 04:56amHave fun with your dog food search each time you find something not quite perfect about the company or food your currently using.
At some point you may want to look into why some dogs are more sensitive to foods and changes in foods than other dogs.
Not quite perfect?!! 'Numerous' product recalls that kills pets and causes liver failure, kidney failure, etc. you consider that just "not quite perfect"?
No Mark not sensitive digestive tracts of a few dogs....dead dogs. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan06/dogs.dying.ssl.html
When one company brand and/or manufacturer has "numerous" recalls that lead to the death of animals, why would any pet owner think this is the norm and to forgive them and continue to purchase their products?
April 6, 2012
Naturals Lamb and Rice dog food from Diamond Pet Foods has been recalled in 12 states for possible salmonella contamination. The recall mainly affects Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, New York, Michigan, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, although it's possible some of the food made its way to other states via customers in the affected areas.
Unconfirmed report that they are stopping all shipments from the SC plant. Foods made by Diamond Pet Food (though not confirmed to be made at the South Carolina Plant)
Solid Gold
Canidae/Felidae
Natural Balance
Kirkland (Costco Brand)
Chicken Soup
Taste of the Wild
4-Health (Tractor Supply Brand)
Here's just a part of their record for producing safe pet food.
September 9, 2010: Blue Buffalo has announced a recall of dog food products due to dangerous levels of Vitamin D, which has resulted in kidney failure in some pets. Additionally, Diamond Pet Foods has announced a recall of Nutra and Premium Edge cat foods deficient in thiamine.
October 2006
Diamond recall for aflotoxin kills 200 dogs in US
This recall of food tainted with aflotoxin was SOLELY due to them NOT testing each and every corn shipment which is required by the FDA.
There are a couple more also, but IMHO once is deadly enough.
My suggestion would be to call and find out where your pet food is produced. Each month I check another brand as switched to Diamond.
Here is a current list of the brands recalled, not all of the brands made there.
Foods made by Diamond Pet Food (though not confirmed to be made at the South Carolina Plant)
Solid Gold
Canidae/Felidae
Natural Balance
Kirkland (Costco Brand)
Chicken Soup
Taste of the Wild
4-Health (Tractor Supply Brand)
""December 2005. A consumer alert has been released for contaminated Diamond pet foods for dogs and cats. Over 100 canine deaths and at least one feline fatality in the last month have been linked to Diamond pet foods contaminated by the potentially deadly toxin Aflatoxin, according to Cornell University veterinarians.
January 2008 Update. Diamond Pet Foods has agreed to pay more than $3 million to settle a lawsuit over its aflatoxin-contaminated dog food made in South Carolina that sparked a nationwide dog food recall in late 2005 and early 2006. The company announced that the money will be used to reimburse buyers of the recalled dog food that didn't return cans for a refund, as well as to pay veterinary bills for owners whose animals were affected by the dog food.
Diamond Pet Foods has not admitted any illegal wrongdoing; however, the company did acknowledge that the contaminated corn wasn't caught by its screening processes and that workers at its Gaston, S.C., plant failed to follow internal testing procedures to ensure its products were safe.
Additional information on the settlement and claims procedures is available on the Diamond Pet Food Settlement Website.""
Hmmmm, the new recall involves the SAME plant in Gaston, SC and they are now stopping ALL shipments, ALL brands of dog food out of the plant.
* This post was
edited 04/15/12 02:14pm by rockhillmanor *
Pawz4me: Actually you left out some info on the Fromms can food made in China so here is the rest of it and this is straight from a rep for the company.
You should know that 5 years ago, the answer would have been a bit different as we use to have our cans made for us at a human food facility located in China. The full story is this;
About 6 years ago we wanted to create and produce a completely human edible canned pet food. Completely up to the high standards and safety requirements required for human food production. Well, we tried to get that done at the two human food canneries in the United States but we did not have large enough production numbers and were turned away. We were left with the choice of going global or going back to pet food grade at Menu Foods. We selected to go global and as you know in March of 2007 we were very glad we made the move to global human food production or we would have been caught in the tragic recall so many other pet food companies were.
That said, because the global facility we chose was in China the backlash was still a losing battle. While we couldn't fit "Human Food Facility" and "Made next to Trader Joe and Wholesale Grocers soups" and "regulated by 6 government bodies throughout the world" on the label we could only put MADE IN CHINA. and that spelled doom for us.
In early part of 2008 we stopped production in China and began searching for a canning facility that would produce the can recipes with the utmost commitment to safety and quality. Our standards would not diminish and we were bound and determined to have it done our way. After about a year we found that in the company in South Dakota. They not only met our standards but exceeded our expectations over and over again.
azgundog wrote: Pawz4me: Actually you left out some info on the Fromms can food made in China so here is the rest of it and this is straight from a rep for the company.
You should know that 5 years ago, the answer would have been a bit different as we use to have our cans made for us at a human food facility located in China. The full story is this;
About 6 years ago we wanted to create and produce a completely human edible canned pet food. Completely up to the high standards and safety requirements required for human food production. Well, we tried to get that done at the two human food canneries in the United States but we did not have large enough production numbers and were turned away. We were left with the choice of going global or going back to pet food grade at Menu Foods. We selected to go global and as you know in March of 2007 we were very glad we made the move to global human food production or we would have been caught in the tragic recall so many other pet food companies were.
That said, because the global facility we chose was in China the backlash was still a losing battle. While we couldn't fit "Human Food Facility" and "Made next to Trader Joe and Wholesale Grocers soups" and "regulated by 6 government bodies throughout the world" on the label we could only put MADE IN CHINA. and that spelled doom for us.
In early part of 2008 we stopped production in China and began searching for a canning facility that would produce the can recipes with the utmost commitment to safety and quality. Our standards would not diminish and we were bound and determined to have it done our way. After about a year we found that in the company in South Dakota. They not only met our standards but exceeded our expectations over and over again.
So as I read this it means their food did 'not' contain melenmine right? Just guilty by association of the fact it was made in China?
My jist of the whole Diamond issue is that over several years MANY brands have been recalled and the recalls only stated the brand name. That is all that is required to notify the public if just that brand was affected.
Many of these brands where produced at Diamond. The aflatoxin investigation that killed so many pets revealed the source and they had to go public with the list of all the brands that were made there using that same ingredient to alert the public. Same as with the China scare, that revealed how many dog foods are produced in one place.
So it's not just the 3 or 4 recalls of Diamond dog food itself......its the cumulative number of recalls of ALL the brands produced there that puts Diamond dog food manufacturing plant with the most recalls which shows a company without stringent, enforced testing and safety procedures for making dog food.
azgundog wrote: Sure people & companies can change but how many chances do we continue to give them? I am not willing to put my dog's life at risk.
I used Canidae for years until they moved there processing to Diamond. The food changed and my dogs (4 of them) started getting sick so I switched. You saw people jumping ship from the product.
There are dog food companies (not the big name ones) making food that has not had recalls and there ingredients are all from the US.
We all make decisions on what we use by what makes us comfortable and we can not fault anyone for that.
Rockhillmanor: I could not get your link to work.
Sorry apparently it doesn't work as a clicky.
It is a 'cached web page' and doesn't work as a clicky link.
Copy and paste the link, that will work.
Note that they are no longer updating the website so keep in mind it is incomplete and does not list the additional new ones that have moved their production over to Diamond.
AAGGGH!
The link has a 'colon' and then a 'w' in it which makes a forum winky smiley when I post it. If you, after all this, still want to see the list, correct the following link and paste in browser!!
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:YQpBTH-Uo-cJADD A 'COLON' AND A 'W' HEREww.thepetfoodlist.com/petfoods_pg1.htm+what+dog+foods+are+processed+at+Pied+Piper+in+texas&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com
* This post was
edited 04/15/12 10:05am by rockhillmanor *
So how many more months will it be until we read that you're changing food again because your dogs got sick eating the food they've been eating? And we can again read about another dog food company that has gone to the dark side, based upon how your dogs can no longer stomach the food?
That was my point.
Diamond has screwed up (most high volume producers do). Our dogs do well on their food. Melamine was all about a supplier lying about what was in their product AND it was not something that anyone knew they should be testing for. Aflatoxin is ever present in the US grain supply AND it is very difficult to find in a load of grain; that is why the completed food should be tested. Diamond screwed up and got caught. How many companies didn’t get caught (because they are low volume producers) and then changed their practices after Diamond got caught? Bacterial contamination occurs easily and medicine is getting better at identifying food borne illnesses so recalls of contaminated food are increasing (i.e. Dole salad mix).
Does that mean contamination is increasing OR detection is increasing?
Quote: ...... Diamond screwed up and got caught. How many companies didn’t get caught (because they are low volume producers)...
No low volume producers WOULD have been caught just as Diamond did.
Diamond is a high producer of MANY smaller volume brands. Their past recalls involved smaller voloume Premium brands they make. So whether these low volume brands were made at Diamond or elsewhere the reporting came in and it led the investigation to the producer. Which happened to be Diamond. So no the statement that most (low volume) companies don't get caught is not a true statement because they 'did' have recalls involving their lower volume brands they produce.
BCSnob wrote: So how many more months will it be until we read that you're changing food again because your dogs got sick eating the food they've been eating? .......That was my point.
I ONLY was sharing informaqtion I discovered and that I believe to be very important information. Sorry that you personally find my posts solely about me and my dogs.
It is about bringing information to the surface for other pets owners to help them make better decisions IF they so desire to.
I had NO idea that the food I was buying had switched from producing their dog food "in house" "on their own property", "conducting their own testing" "providing quality ingredients" to a large commercial multi- brand manufacturing plant. I chose to share that information.
You feed Diamond and you have every right to defend the company. But what side of the fence would you be on if your kennel sadly became one of the deadly statistics of bad food coming out of a company that has repeated recalls?
For Alfatoxin (which is where you picked out the quoted text) low volume producers may not have been affected because alfatoxin does not impact entire fields of grain; only sections of the fields. If the load of grain obtained by a producer was from an unaffected portion of the field their product would not have been affected. High volume producers buy more ingredients are more likely to be impacted by alfatoxin contamination in portions of a harvest.
Very few if any low volume pet food companies do their own lab tests. They use independent testing labs.
If my company had a product failure because a supplier changed a process used to make one of our supplies; who is at fault? Did my company have a detailed SOP and product specs in place that the supplier must follow? Did my company test to see if the supplier actually supplied what we asked for? Did my company go to the supplier to audit their processes?
So these low volume producers asked a manufacturer to fill their product bags with their recipe. How much specifics did they give the manufacturer? Did they check to see if the manufacturer followed the procedures they gave them (if they gave them many) and met the specs they gave them?
* This post was
edited 04/16/12 07:08am by BCSnob *
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