Dog Community

Food quarantine

Posted : 4/19/2007 10:50:11 AM

I can't remember if I read it in a post here or another forum / group but I thought it was worthy of a separate post.
Someone suggested that we should buy our food in advance of needing it and keeping it unopened and unused for a few months so that if there is ever a recall we would know about it before it was fed.
I thought that was an excellent idea and I'm going to be doing that myself. At least this way I'll feel confident that I have "safe food" should I decide to go back to store bought at some point, or if for some reason I can't homecook.

willowchow

Posted : 4/19/2007 12:07:29 PM

It could help. But, you could also keep the food for awhile, feed it and then find out there's a problem.

JoAnnDe

Posted : 4/19/2007 12:11:04 PM

True - but even the Menu Food scare was only 4 months in the making ('only' - I use that term VERY lightly). So if we had bought food in December without planning to use it until May or June we'd have known the food on our shelf was contaminated before we fed it.
I need to keep some commercial food on hand in case of a hurricane evacuation so I'm holding onto all my current cans (now that I've switched to homecooked [

]) for hurricanes - that will mean I'll have them for about 4 or 5 months before I use them and by then we should (HOPEFULLY) know all the foods with problems.

starsenchis

Posted : 4/19/2007 11:38:07 PM

Someone suggested that we should buy our food in advance of needing it and keeping it unopened and unused for a few months so that if there is ever a recall we would know about it before it was fed.

That was me

yup, "kibble quarantine" seems like the way to go these days! I just got 2 bags of the Timberwolf Organics today and put them in a brown bag with today's date. I'm sticking them in the fridge and waiting until at least September before I use them.

(Edited to clarify the point- "IF" I use them. I'm homecooking these days, but I'll be traveling to dog shows and the national specialty after September so it'll be more convenient to use kibble...)

willowchow

Posted : 4/20/2007 12:26:58 AM

So, these foods have long shelf lives? I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be buying naturally preserved food and then letting it sit until too close to the expiration date.

starsenchis

Posted : 4/20/2007 7:09:31 PM

I'm sticking them in the fridge

(unopened)

ottoluv

Posted : 4/20/2007 7:34:21 PM

Actually seems like a good idea to me too. Seems most of the problems were identified within 2-3 months from the manufacture date and most foods are good at least a year following the manufacture date.