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Royal Canin/Medi-Cal Canada recall - cyanuric acid

Posted : 4/21/2007 7:29:10 AM

Medi-Cal/Royal Canin Canada Voluntary Product Recall

April 20, 2007 - Medi-Cal/Royal Canin Canada Voluntary Product Recall (all date codes of):

ROYAL CANIN VETERINARY DIET CANINE EARLY CARDIAC EC
ROYAL CANIN VETERINARY DIET CANINE SENSITIVITY RC (Rice and Catfish)
ROYAL CANIN VETERINARY DIET CANINE SKIN SUPPORT SS

ROYAL CANIN VETERINARY DIET FELINE HYPOALLERGENIC HP
ROYAL CANIN VETERINARY DIET FELINE SENSITIVITY RD (Rice and Duck)

Royal Canin has discovered a new contaminant in rice gluten. This contaminant is cyanuric acid, which is chemically related to, but distinct from, melamine.

Consequently, we are recalling all date codes of these dry products.

We recommend you stop feeding these specific diets and return them to your veterinary clinic for a substitute diet or refund. If you have any concerns over the health and well-being of your pet, please contact your veterinary clinic. You can also contact Medi-Cal/Royal Canin Veterinary Diet at 1-866-494-6844. Please leave a voice message with your name, number, and a brief description of your concern. This will help us determine the appropriate routing of your questions. All calls will be returned by a Medi-Cal/Royal Canin Veterinary Diet team member within 24 hours.

We cannot express how devastated we are to notify you of this new finding, and we offer you our sincere regrets and apologies. The steps we are taking are driven by our philosophy of putting pets first.

Medi-Cal/Royal Canin Canada Voluntary Product Recall

April 10, 2007 - Medi-Cal/Royal Canin Canada Proactively Recalls Feline Dissolution Formula (canned)

Guelph, Ontario - Royal Canin Canada recalled Medi-Cal Feline Dissolution Formula canned diet on April 10, 2007 because one production lot (January 08 2009) contains contaminated wheat gluten. This product is produced for Royal Canin Canada by the Menu Foods Ontario plant. Medi-Cal Feline Dissolution Formula canned diet is Royal Canin#%92s only wheat gluten-containing canned product.

Royal Canin Canada has informed all Canadian veterinary clinics that Medi-Cal Feline Dissolution Formula canned diet, prescribed exclusively through veterinary clinics, should not be fed to cats. Although only one production lot was affected, to eliminate any risks to cats, Royal Canin Canada is proactively advising veterinary clinics to remove all of the Feline Dissolution Formula canned date codes.

Pet owners who are feeding the recalled product to their cats and have questions related to the recall should contact Royal Canin Veterinary Diet at 1-866-494-6844.

http://www.medi-cal.ca/

jessies_mom

Posted : 4/21/2007 7:55:07 AM

Thanks Kelly; A few days ago it was reported that researchers found cyanuric acid and 2 other contaminants in pet food.

Edited to add; This link was posted by Rebecca in another thread and probably explains why they found cyanuric acid; [linkhttp://www.specialchem4polymers.com/tc/Melamine-Flame-Retardants/index.aspx?id=4004]http://www.specialchem4polymers.com/tc/Melamine-Flame-Retardants/index.aspx?id=4004[/link]

melamine cyanurate, is a salt of melamine and cyanuric acid. Melamine Cyanurate has a higher thermal stability than pure melamine, remaining stable up to about 320 °C. For this reason Melamine Cyanurate is often applied in polymers with higher processing temperatures, like polyamides.

Cazzy

Posted : 4/21/2007 1:41:37 PM

Thanks Kelly for the updates...is this ever going to end...

chewbecca

Posted : 4/21/2007 1:56:33 PM

I am going to copy and paste a post I put in the Royal Canin USA thread here, just in case no one is checking the other threads:

hm...
So my brother and sister-in-law feed their cat the Persian Cat formula (they SWEAR it doesn't have any ash content in it...yeah, not sure how they have come to THAT conclusion) and it has rice in it, but is NOT as of yet, on the recall list.
Since their ingredients (like NB) are not accurately listed on the bags, do you think this has the rice protein concentrate?

I'd call them and tell them of the recent Royal Canin recall, but if the persian cat hasn't been recalled and there isn't a chance that it contains the rice protein content, I won't bother.
They'll just be crappy to me about it anyway.

papillon806

Posted : 4/21/2007 6:24:29 PM

ORIGINAL: chewbecca

I am going to copy and paste a post I put in the Royal Canin USA thread here, just in case no one is checking the other threads:

hm...
So my brother and sister-in-law feed their cat the Persian Cat formula (they SWEAR it doesn't have any ash content in it...yeah, not sure how they have come to THAT conclusion) and it has rice in it, but is NOT as of yet, on the recall list.
Since their ingredients (like NB) are not accurately listed on the bags, do you think this has the rice protein concentrate?

I'd call them and tell them of the recent Royal Canin recall, but if the persian cat hasn't been recalled and there isn't a chance that it contains the rice protein content, I won't bother.
They'll just be crappy to me about it anyway.

I don't know, but I stopped feeding my cat the Light 30

jessies_mom

Posted : 4/21/2007 6:51:40 PM

I'd call them and tell them of the recent Royal Canin recall, but if the persian cat hasn't been recalled and there isn't a chance that it contains the rice protein content, I won't bother.
They'll just be crappy to me about it anyway.

I stopped feeding our cats the Intense Hairball 34.

sooner

Posted : 4/21/2007 10:09:53 PM

I doubt I'll ever feed another Royal Canin product again, considering I got this response, "We want to reassure you that we use very high quality ingredients and they are subjected to a very strict monitoring process for quality and safety." less than 24 hours before the specific product I was asking about was recalled for a contaminated ingredient that wasn't on the ingredient list. Then they lied to me on the phone about having a six month grace period to change packaging.

So *I* wouldn't trust ANYTHING from them.

papillon806

Posted : 4/21/2007 10:39:12 PM

ORIGINAL: sooner

I doubt I'll ever feed another Royal Canin product again, considering I got this response, "We want to reassure you that we use very high quality ingredients and they are subjected to a very strict monitoring process for quality and safety." less than 24 hours before the specific product I was asking about was recalled for a contaminated ingredient that wasn't on the ingredient list. Then they lied to me on the phone about having a six month grace period to change packaging.

So *I* wouldn't trust ANYTHING from them.

While I do agree with you, I do know that Royal Canin and Eukanuba are the only two companies that have a double screening process when it comes to quality-checking the ingredients. Hopefully their tactics on this matter will improve with the discovery of the latest news (I hope). I am having a hard time right now with where I put the blame. While it is the individual companies responsibility to know where their products come from, they can't possibly imagine that their suppliers are doing this sort of thing to their ingredients, ya know? I am mad at the companies because I feel like they should have some sort of testing that checks for crap like this, but I am more mad at the stupid suppliers in China than I am the dog food companies.

*sigh* This whole thing just sucks! [

]

jessies_mom

Posted : 4/21/2007 10:45:52 PM

I am having a hard time right now with where I put the blame. While it is the individual companies responsibility to know where their products come from, they can't possibly imagine that their suppliers are doing this sort of thing to their ingredients, ya know? I am mad at the companies because I feel like they should have some sort of testing that checks for crap like this, but I am more mad at the stupid suppliers in China than I am the dog food companies.

I feel the same way and wonder if we haven't been too critical of the companies; who could have possibly imagined a supplier would

ut melamine in the glutens?

jessies_mom

Posted : 4/21/2007 10:47:57 PM

Then they lied to me on the phone about having a six month grace period to change packaging.

So, they don't have six months to change the packaging? How's Boomer doing?

sooner

Posted : 4/21/2007 10:59:11 PM

ORIGINAL: papillon806

While it is the individual companies responsibility to know where their products come from, they can't possibly imagine that their suppliers are doing this sort of thing to their ingredients, ya know?

I agree with you to a point. Or, I would have 3-4 weeks ago. BUT it's been over a month now, since this started. It's been a week since it was theorized that the spiking was intentional. At this point none of this should be taking any company by surprise. It pisses me off that they try to sugarcoat it and say they use high quality ingredients that are subject to a strict monitoring process when in fact their monitoring process didn't include testing for this substance. That their testing didn't cover everything I don't blame them for. What I blame them for is implying the ingredients are safe. They had to have already suspected an issue at that point. I'd rather not have gotten a response at all.

But the ingredient issue is just as important to me [sm=2cents.gif]

sooner

Posted : 4/21/2007 11:07:17 PM

ORIGINAL: jessies_mom

Then they lied to me on the phone about having a six month grace period to change packaging.

So, they don't have six months to change the packaging? How's Boomer doing?

No, apparently they don't. Mordanna posted about it here:
http://forums.dogfoodproject.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=33123&an=0&page=0#Post33123

Boomer is ok. Thanks for asking [

] He's eating the By Nature Organics Turkey with white rice and just about 1/8 cup of Eagle Pack at a time. So far so good. I'll up the amount little by little and hope for the best. If for some reason the Eagle Pack Lamb doesn't work out - I got a free 6 lb bag of the Duck and we'll try that. I also have samples of FirstMate coming.

sandra_slayton

Posted : 4/21/2007 11:27:29 PM

but I am more mad at the stupid suppliers in China than I am the dog food companies.

AMEN

Myra

Posted : 4/22/2007 7:09:48 AM

I seriously doubt that I'll ever use another Royal Canin or Natural Balance product.

I could forgive the tainted ingredients and lay the blame for that on the Chinese growers/suppliers. But as the owner of a food allergic dog, I cannot forgive them for selling mislabeled products. It's my understanding (based on Mordanna's post at the Dog Food

roject) that it's not "legal" to do so. And regardless of whether it's "legal" or not, it's morally wrong and certainly not what I would expect from those companies.

dyan

Posted : 4/22/2007 7:21:49 AM

While it is the individual companies responsibility to know where their products come from, they can't possibly imagine that their suppliers are doing this sort of thing to their ingredients, ya know? I am mad at the companies because I feel like they should have some sort of testing that checks for crap like this, but I am more mad at the stupid suppliers in China than I am the dog food companies.

What about what John from Eagle said about UC certification. His quote:
We are EU Certified, which means you must have ingredient source tracebility; and we do. Does this not mean that they do trace ingredients. Does this mean that Royal Canin and maybe Natural Balance is not? I need to spend some time investigating this.