Dog Food Recall - Menu Foods

[Big Dog]

We've got a news story on the front page covering the expansion of the recall to these treats:  Pet Food Recall Expands To Wal-Mart Treats & Biscuits

I'm going to try to post two big tables listing each product code, etc., but not sure the formatting will work.

Here is the list of Sunshine Mills produced Treats & Biscuits being recalled:

Branded Product and Variety	Product Size:	UPC Codes	Plant Code / Best By Date
Nurture    Chicken & Rice Biscuit	26 oz.	70155-13606	Plant    code:	RB
Best by:	31208
Nurture    Lamb & Rice Biscuit	26 oz.	70155-13607	Plant    code:	RB
Best by:	31308
Pet Life    Large Peanut Butter Biscuit	4 lb.	41746-00950	Plant    code:	RB	RB
Best by:	30608	31308
Pet Life    Large Biscuit	4 lb.	41746-02545	Plant    code:	RB	RB
Best by:	30308	31908
Lassie    Lamb and Rice Biscuit	26 oz.	45352-07005	Plant    code:	RB	RB
Best by:	30708	31908
Pet Life    Large Biscuit	25 lb.	41746-00008	Best By Date – last 5 digits
Best by:	30308	31408
Pet Life    Extra Large Biscuit	25 lb.	41746-00010
Best by:	30408	30808	31408	31508
Pet Life    Large Variety Biscuit	25 lb.	70155-00073
Best by:	30408
Pet Life    Peanut Butter Large Biscuit	25 lb.	41746-00078
Best by:	30308	30808
Pet Life    People Pleasers  Dog Treat	25 lb.	41746-00266
Best by:	31408	31608	32308
Pet Life    People Pleasers Dog Treat	50 oz.	70155-11006	Best By Date – 5 digits
Best by:	30208	30508	30808	31308	31408
Pet Life    People Pleasers Dog Treat	40 oz.	70155-11007
Best by:	30908	31208	31808

[Big Dog]

These are the Sunshine Mills produced Private Label Products Sold at Wal-Mart & Stater Brothers:

Private Label Product and Variety	Product Size:	UPC Codes	Plant Code / Best By Date
Companion's    Best Multi Flavor Biscuit	4 lb.	50700-49270	Plant    code:	RB	RB	RB	RB	RB
Best by:	30308	30808	31108	31408	31608
Plant    code:	RB	RB
Best by:	32308	32708
Stater    Brothers  Large Biscuit	4 lb.	74175-18801	Plant    code:	RB	RB
Best by:	30908	31308
Ol'Roy    Peanut Butter Biscuit	5 lb.	78742-34501	Plant    code:	RB	RB	RB	RB	RB
Best by:	30508	31008	31208	31508	31608
Plant    code:	RB	RB
Best by:	32108	32308
Ol'Roy 4    Flavor Large Biscuit	10 lb.	81131-46959	Plant    code:	RB	RB	RB	RB	RB
Best by:	30308	30408	30508	30608	30708
Plant    code:	RB	RB	RB	RB	RB
Best by:	30808	30908	31208	31308	31408
Plant    code:	RB	RB	RB	RB	RB
Best by:	31508	31608	31708	31908	32008
Plant    code:	RB	RB
Best by:	32108	32408
Ol'Roy    Puppy Biscuit	28.8 oz.	81131-92197	Plant    code:	RB	RB	RB	RB	RB
Best by:	30208	30308	30408	30608	30708
Plant code:	RB	RB	RB	RB	RB
Best by:	30908	31008	31408	31508	31608
Plant    code:	RB	RB	RB	RB	RB
Best by:	31708	31808	32108	32208	32308
Champion    Breed Peanut Butter Biscuit	4 lb.	72000-26063	Plant    code:	RB	RB
Best by:	32108	32308
Champion    Breed Large Biscuit	4 lb.	72000-26065	Plant    code:	RB	RB
Best by:	32208	32308
Perfect    Pals Large Biscuit	4 lb.	12333-00260	Plant    code:	RB
Best by:	31808
Stater    Brothers Large Biscuit	26 oz.	74175-18802	Best By Date – 5 digits
Best by:	30308	31008

Sorry about the formatting!

The "Best by:" dates are the numbers that end in 08.

[skatinggeek]

For a long time I fed my dog Iams (dry) but about two months ago I had this feeling I needed to get something else. I have switched to Pedigree (dry) and her coat seams to be much better. I am worried with all of these recalls. How long should I be worried about feeding her Iams? Has anyone heard anything about Pedigree? I am thinking of putting her on a raw diet so I wouldn’t have to worry about her. She has epilepsy and is on medication so I need her to be as healthy as possible. What all do you feed your dogs on raw diets? I have always supplemented her food (to giver her the stuff dog foods leave out) but with all this it might be best to go with a total raw diet. Any suggestions? She is a Rottweiler/GSD mix 92lbs and about five years old or so. I have only had her a year and a half and she was diagnosed just over a year ago with the epilepsy. Also I have a foster dog that is eating a Purina (dry) dog food. Anyone hear anything on that?

[Big Dog]

Heads up folks - while this appears unrelated to the Menu Foods and melamine contaminated wheat gluten, the FDA and Natural Balance (the Dick Van Patten brand) have decided to recall a pair of dry pet foods - one for cats and the other for dogs.

The recalled products (ALL DATES) are:

• Venison & Brown Rice Dry Dog Food
• Venison & Green Pea Dry Cat Foods

Our story: Pet Food Recall List: Natural Balance Recalls Dog & Cat Food

The issue appears to cause vomiting and kidney problems.

Stop feeding those products asap if you've got them in your house.

[Big Dog]

Menu foods has added another product to the dog food recall list. Seems a bit ironic, but this time, it is a vegetarian product.

The recalled product is Natural Life Vegetarian in cans.

Our story is here: Pet Food Recall List: Menu Foods Recalls More Dog Food

Here are the product details:

• Product: Natural Life
• Date On The Bottom of Can: Nov/22/09
• Variety Description: Vegetarian 13.2oz Can
• UPC code: 12344-07114

[K9 Obedience]

I have read through all the interesting information on the subject of this pet food recall. This is totally disgusting and I pray that these food companies are accepting their accountability for the health issues and the deaths of these poor dogsa. My heart goes out to anyone that is caught up in this sad affair. This certainly does put forward a good arguement for feeding our dogs a natural home prepared diet. If one cannot trust pet food manufacturers who are meant to have the well being of our animals at heart then everyone involved should as a sign of protest NEVER BUY FOOD FROM THAT MANUFATURER AGAIN. There are no excuses for this to happen when our beloved animals lives are at risk. Does anyone know if this disaster is contained within certain countries or is it going to rear its ugly head elsewhere?

Dog Lover.

[ross917]

What pet food is safe. My cat died about a week ago from eating dry cat food (has not been named on the recall list as of yet). Cat died from kidney failure (cat was between 4-5 yrs of age, alway kept inside, and only ate one time of food). We have 2 other cats (that we adopted for my kids) and one small puppy. I am so scared, the shelter gave us science diet for the cats, but the dog (only get dry dog food). But I am still unsure about what foods to feed them, what is truly safe. The cat that died, was health the week before, and it got to the point where it could not walk, we took it to the vet, and she told us it would be ok, and it would come home in a day or two. But, the cat died, least than 8 hrs at the vet. She told us they did all they could, and the cat stood up, and then dropped dead. That cat was my kid's best friend, it survived Hurricane Katrina, and it trust us to protect it, and everyone one of those companies said, DRY FOOD was safe, how can we believe any of them now. If the poisons are in the cat/dog food, what about the food we feed to the animals that we eat (cows, pigs, and chickens) How safe are they?

[K9 Obedience]

The answer is simple...They are not safe. Everything you eat has either been grown with chemicals and pesticides or has had them added during the manufacturing process. Even if you go organic as my daughter has, your food is safe but what about the polluted environment we live in day after day. My daughters answer is that, You just have to do the best you can. By that she means:
Eat as much organic food as possible.
If you cannot afford to buy pure natural water then at least filter your water.
Feed your animals as natural as possible, ie fresh meat or fish, fresh fruit and vegetables, (wash throughly if feeding raw) and cooked rice or pasta.
Use as little cosmetics, sprays, cleaning products, medications and so on as possible. We all use natural shampoos, soaps ands cleaning products, most of which are available from supermarkets nowdays as the public are more aware of the health risks posed by the chemicals in all products.
We use the same natural shampoos to bath the dogs as we do to wash our own hair. All veggie and fruit peelings are kept and cooked up to a big stew for the dogs, (the peelings are organic!)
Organic products are slightly more expensive though not a lot more. Organic milk (which the collies love) is £1.15p for 4 litres and normal milk is £0.88p for 4 litres. All I can say is just do the best you can and try and feed your pets as natural as possible. Remember companion animals have been with humans for centuries and commercial dog food has only been used for a tiny fraction of that time. So what did all those animals live on before. They mostly surviverd on kitchen scraps, the odd bone from the butches and any rabbits that they caught. One thing is a fact and that is , Dogs did not get all the illnesses that they do nowdays. As one 98 year old lady in our village said to me when I told her that my dog had died from cancer.....
"Don't be silly love...Dogs don't get cancer     

Dog Lover.

[n003lb]

Just a quick heads up to skatinggeek.  My dogs eat nothing but Pedigree Small Dog dry food and table scraps.  I have had one dog that died of kidney failure, but that was quite some time ago, 2 years now I think, and I'm sure it was unrelated to the current situation.  She was nearly 25 years old, and it was old age that finally got to her.

I have seven dogs and one cat that all eat the Pedigree food almost exclusivly, and none of them have shown any signs of kideny failure or problems.  I thought one of them was having kidney problems, and worried that it might have been food related, but it turned out that she was diabetic instead.  Put her on insulin and she nearly has healthy as ever.

Also, I got an email from Mars Corp. (parent company of Pedigree Food for Dogs) back a few weeks ago when this all "hit the fan" saying that their food had been tested both by the FDA and third party labs for melamine contamination and the food tested negative.  They also said in that email that all ingredients in Pedigree Food came from American producers.  I tried to contact Mars last week to confirm this email, but I can't get anything out of them now.

Now, I'm not saying that Pedigree is safe.  The way this is going, you can't honestly say anything is safe anymore.  However, my dogs and my cat eat only Pedigree and we've had no problems.  My parents' dogs eat only Pedigree and they have no problems.  I am staying away from all wet dog foods, even Pedigree, but as far as dry foods go, I think Pedigree is safe, at least for now it is.  The safest option is to go all organic as K9 says above.  The problem I have with that is I don't have the time to try to make my dogs' food every day.  Trust me, my dogs' happiness and well being take priority over all else, and if anything from Pedigree shows up on a recall, then I'll make time to prepare my own food for them.  It's just a lot of food to make for seven, possibly soon to be eight or nine, dogs.  We've got a new litter of pups to think about now, too.

It's rather interesting to me the fact that most of this recall has involved manufactures related to Procter & Gamble, a drug company, while Pedigree is manufactured by a candy company, Mars Corp., and it seems to be safe at the moment.  Maybe the candy company has a little more stringent guidelines on their products?

BTW, I've been trying to keep up with the recalls, but the news will never say what has been recalled.  All they ever say is "5 new brands have been added to the recall" but they'll never say what has been added.  Does anyone know if any Pedigree foods have been recalled?  So many of these are so hard to follow because of this practice of one facility making food for 2 dozen different lables.  That makes it rather hard to detirmine what food has been recalled and what hasen't.

[K9 Obedience]

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/petfoodrecall/

Check out the FDA's website to see the full list of all recalled products. Remember it is not just cat and dog tinned and dried food but numerous numbers of treats and chews as well!

I understand what you are saying about having the time to prepare fresh, natural food. Please believe me that is does get easier and more of a quick routine the more you do it. Anything first tried takes a long time but with practise it becomes quick and easy. Just try doing cook ups when you are working on another chore. Put all veggie peelings and scraps in a tub in the fridge till you are ready to cook them. Try starting with supplimenting just one of the dog's meals with a fresh, home prepared one. That way the dog's get used to a new diet and you are only doing it as and when you have time!

As I said in my post I also have to feed my dogs on commercial kibble as some days I am stretched for time. I think along the lines of:

One bar of delicious chocolate a week does not harm you. Eat it every day and your health will suffer...

We could all do with the day containing 48 hours instead of 24 in this frenetic lifestyle of today's living. Just do the best you can and I am sure your beloved dogs will be fine....

Dog Loverl 

[K9 Obedience]

The breaking news is that Wheat Gluten and Rice Protein were NOT contaminated by the industrial chemical Melamine. The contamination was in Wheat Flour that was mixed with Melamine and other nitrogen rich chemicals. The contaminated wheat flour was then put into bags and labelled as wheat gluten and rice protein. Both managers at the companies, Xuzhou Anying and Binzhou Futian have been arressted by the Chinese authourities.

And no one checked or tested what was actually in the sacks before it was made into pet food, they tested "samples" sent to them by the Chinese company's. Oh right... So are we to take it that the chinese could have filled the bags with any rubbish and as long as their "samples" were ok then so must the other thousands and thousands of pounds of ingredients. This has really shown us the level of quality controls within the pet food industry.

Apparently there is a "very low risk" to human health from eating pork, chicken and farmed fish that were fed the contaminated wheat flour. Low risk...Hmmm how low I wonder???       

Dog Lover

[K9 Obedience]

Just to give you all an update. Investigators have discovered another chemical called Cyanuric Acid as having been deliberatly added to pet food ingredients exported by Chinese companies. Chemical producers in China have told investigators that animal feed producers purchase Cyanuric acid to add to animal feed to increase protein levels. One chinese officia said that it was done
"in a bid to meet the contractual demand for the amount of protein in the products."

Cyanuric acid is odourless and is used in a crystalised form. It is used in swimming pools, hot tubs and water treatments. Melamine and Cynuric acid are not especially toxic as single compounds but when used together can cause renal failure if ingested by blocking kidney function.

The FDA are still saying their is no cause for alarml if humans have eaten the the pork, chickens and farmed fish that had been fed contaminated feed. They said the risks were "very low".