Natural Balance/Melamine

Now THAT'S scary.

"Diamond got the rice protein concentrate from an American company, which he wouldn't name."

This is INSANE !!!!   I cannot believe it's melamine ..... who's next ?

Also go check out itchmo.com   there seems to be a bit more stuff recalled

edited cause that link didn't work sorry

[linkhttp://www.itchmo.com]www.itchmo.com[/link]
 

recall has expanded and now covers the following items for all dates:

• Venison and Brown Rice Treats for Dogs (New today)
  
• Venison and Brown Rice Canned Formula for Dogs (New today)
  
• Venison and Brown Rice Dry Food for Dogs (Reported Sunday)
  
• Venison and Green Pea Dry Food for Cats (Reported Sunday)

I was thinking about getting this for my dog last week. Glad I didn't

so this is a new ingredient? that hits on one of my pet peeves - bag ingredients should be changed exactly when the formula changes - not before, not after. people should be able to look at their bags and KNOW if they are affected.

 I just read a post on another board from someone who lost two dogs to this food last week.  ALL of her dogs ended up with kidney failure.  This is so scary.  I don't trust that anything is safe, right now.

With what I've read lately about Natural Balance, it's not really surprising that they leave their ingredient procurement to Diamond, but it's still disappointing that they don't oversee things themselves.

Both the Wheat Gluten and the "Rice Protein Concentrate" (which they believe is the contaminated substance in the NB Venison forumla) were obtained "from a new supplier" .... different suppliers, but new to the companies that were using them.      Most of the companies say they test their ingredients.  Now I understand that melamine isn't something that is normally tested for but when you have a new supplier wouldn't it stand to reason that you'd do EXTRA testing until the supplier gained your confidence ???
I'm so MIFFED at all this ..... the same contaminant !   You'd think EVERY company out there would be testing for this by now !!!

I just posted this in the other natural balance thread:
 
Apparently it is all the venison food the company makes, wet, dry and treats.  My question is, could the other cans of food they make or other dry foods they make get contaminated from being made in the same place?  I feed duck & potato wet and how do I know that it hasn't been contaminated from being made in the same place?  Do they clean their machinery enough so as not to contiminate the other foods they make?

ORIGINAL: Shelley75Apparently it is all the venison food the company makes, wet, dry and treats.  My question is, could the other cans of food they make or other dry foods they make get contaminated from being made in the same place?  I feed duck & potato wet and how do I know that it hasn't been contaminated from being made in the same place?  Do they clean their machinery enough so as not to contiminate the other foods they make?

 
The issue of cross-contamination was addressed at the Senate hearing last week.  Not surprisingly, there wasn't a good answer.  As well as I recall, it was something like "most of the reputable manufacturers clean all the involved machinery thoroughly between batches of food, but there is no requirement that they do so."  I'm paraphrasing, of course, but I think that was the general gist of it.

but there is no requirement that they do so

That's what I heard from the senate meeting...some do...and some dont I'm sure

I got an odd piece of kibble in a bag of Eagle Pack once - they said it was from switching batches and pieces being stuck in the hopper. It was one of their regular formulas in a holistic bag. It shocked me at the time that they, who seemed so quality conscious, didn't clean between batches.

What's really bothering me is this. . .NB has stated that test all their batches before they go out.  Well, how could that be and this was missed? 
 
As for the ingredient changes not being on the bags.  I just e-mailed them about this last week.  They did respond and when I go home I'll post the response. 

Man.

Man. Man. Man.

This ticks me off. Because I switched Ella to the potato and duck formula because I was looking for a simpler formula. I'm putting her on Eagle Pack next (I found a store, YAY) but not trusting food companies is becoming a huger issue everyday.

We were all SO sure of NB. We all felt SO SAFE feeding this food to our pets and I'd read, "Well, I feed NB and at least it's not involved in the recall". I felt safe switching Ella over to it. I'm so ticked off because, this is crazy. I mean, I know there's no mention of ANY other formulas besides the Venison, but what next??? The potatoes in the duck formula? Or...the sweet potatoes in the fish formula? or the duck itself? fish itself? And what company is next? Eagle Pack (if I'm psychic, believe you me, I'll be back here to say "I told you so!" hahaha)?
It's scary. I'm having a moment and I'm sure I'll recover from it and I KNOW I said not to get into a panicked frenzy, but that was before I read this. For some reason, a batch of bad meat is easier for me to understand than a batch of bad rice. I have NO idea why.