RECALL: Royal Canin

Royal Canin USA has voluntarily recalled a number of foods due to melamine found in the rice protein concentrate...Here is more info:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Royal Canin USA said on Friday it was voluntarily recalling all of its dry pet food products containing rice protein concentrate after it found a melamine derivative in some products.

Melamine is an industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers.

The announcement is the latest in a widening recall of dog and cat food products across the United States since mid-March. More than 100 brands of pet food have been recalled after reports of cases of pets developing kidney failure.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received more than 14,000 reports of pet illnesses so far. Officials have confirmed just 16 deaths but believe the actual number could be higher.

Royal Canin said it had not confirmed cases of illness in pets due to its products.

"We are taking this proactive stance to avoid any confusion for our customers about which Royal Canin USA products are safe and which products may be affected," the company said in a statement.

The company will also no longer use Chinese suppliers for any of its vegetable proteins, it said.

Click to expand...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070420/us_nm/royalcanin_recall_dc_3

And, from the Royal Canin website:


We are currently experiencing problems with our phone system.
Please call (800) 513-0041 for immediate assistance
or you may email us at [email protected].

April 19, 2007

Dear Royal Canin USA Customer,

It is with sincere regret that I inform you of a new and unfortunate development with some of our pet food products.

Although we have no confirmed cases of illness in pets, we have decided to voluntarily remove the following dry pet food products that contain rice protein concentrate due to the presence of a melamine derivative.

ROYAL CANIN SENSIBLE CHOICE® (available in pet specialty stores nationwide)

- Chicken Meal & Rice Formula Senior
- Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Puppy
- Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Adult
- Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Senior
- Rice & Catfish Meal Formula Adult

ROYAL CANIN VETERINARY DIET™ (available only in veterinary clinics)

- Canine Early Cardiac EC 22™
- Canine Skin Support SS21™
- Feline Hypoallergenic HP23™

We are taking this proactive stance to voluntarily recall these products to avoid any confusion for our customers about which Royal Canin USA products are safe and which products may be affected.

Pet owners should immediately stop feeding their pets the Royal Canin USA dry pet food products listed above. Pet owners should consult with a veterinarian if they are concerned about the health of their pet. No other Royal Canin diets are affected by this recall and CONTINUE TO BE safe for pets to eat.

In addition, Royal Canin USA will no longer use any Chinese suppliers for any of our vegetable proteins.

This decision to recall some of our dry pet food products is driven by our philosophy that the “Pet Comes First”. The safety and nutritional quality of our pet food is Royal Canin USA’s top priority. Pet owners who have questions about this recall and other Royal Canin USA products should call 1-800-592-6687 or (800) 513-0041.

On behalf of the entire Royal Canin family, our hearts go out to the pet owners and everyone in the pet community who have been affected by all of the recent recalls. We are as passionate about the health and happiness of our customers’ pets as we are of our own, so we are committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure this never happens again.

Sincerely,

Olivier Amice
President and CEO
Royal Canin USA

*sigh*.......I had a feeling that this recall would eventually get to the food that I feed my boys.

Sounds like it's US-specific....any Canadians know if it has any affect on the Canadian Royal-Canin dry food?

Cinder has been *very* sick for the past three days (vomiting & diarhhea).....I'm 99% sure it's unrelated, but these recalls really make you consider that 1% Of course when I talked to my vet on Tuesday about my sick boy she said that Royal Canin was NOT considered unsafe and that we should be OK to keep feeding him this diet (tho for the past few days we've been feeding him "vet's choice - gastro formula" to help his upset tummy).

Anyways.....I'm rambling....question is if anyone knows if Canadian Royal Canin is affected? Thanks for the info!

Cinder, It does appear to be RC USA only. I updated the original thread to say that as well. Thanks for pointing that out!

Hope Cinder is ok and feeling better soon!

I don't know about the RC distributed in Canada, but I wouldn't take any chances. I don't feed my doglets anything grain or rice, but if I did, I think I'd avoid any foods containing rice or wheat gluten with all that's going on right now.

I hope Cinder starts feeling better soon!

With all the foods that seem to be added to the darn list daily-- IF any of my dogs start showing signs of illness- I will take all of them off all dog food and feeding them homecooked for a while. I have read some of these sad stories of dogs getting ill and people forcing them to eat the food that has made them ill.

Thanks for all the info!

I agree Sandy! Once Cinder is feeling better (as I said we're feeding him a vet-available "gastro-formula" food right now), we won't be putting him back on Royal Canin until all of this is cleared up. It is really unfortunate because it took us forever to find a food that he was interested in eating!

Looks like I'll be making a lot of cooked chicken breast and rice over the weekend! LOL I think I'll make a big batch and freeze it in "dinner-size" baggies for him. I'm going to talk to my vet again to determine if there is a vitamin/mineral mix that is available that I can add to ensure he's getting everything he needs.

....tho what he needs right now is lots of luv from "dad" who took the day off work to be home with the sick boy!

-Bonnie

Royal Canin Adult 27

Hi,

I know a lot of people feed their dogs the Royal Canin Adult 27 food, can we confirm that this is not part of the recall?

Royal Canine Recall Yesterday!

I have been checking their website periodically and this morning I see this new recall. Their site has been saying none of their food is affected, but now this! They are now saying they are not using any grain from foreign sources. When is this ever going to end?????

http://www.royalcanin.us/

Sorry for the duplicate post. I posted before I saw the other posts.

It is not listed on the RC website as part of the recall. But, it does include Corn Gluten Meal as the fifth ingredient. Based on this article (http://http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/20/news/gluten.php), It would seem that corn gluten meal may be the next affected ingredient. However, it is not currently part of the recall....I'm just having a hard time trusting wheat, rice or corn gluten ingredients at the moment...

From the above listed link:

So far, melamine has been found in both wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China. Media reports from South Africa suggest that a third pet food ingredient from China, corn gluten, was also contaminated with melamine. That tainted ingredient has not been found in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration said.

Click to expand...

I feed Lily RC 27, and I just got off the phone with them. They transferred me to a food tech, but it just went into voice mail. Looking at the ingredients, it contains rice. So, the question is, how can they know the rice in this food is safe? It makes no sense to me. I don't know when this is ever going to end. It does say that anything with an expiration date of 4-08 is safe as they are no longer using Chinese suppliers. I guess we can try to find the food with that expiration date and throw out what we have now to be safe. I only have 1/2 bag left, and it is is the trash now. I just don't trust any of these companies anymore. I may just feed her boiled chicken and rice for a while.

Shay, I completely agree. I called them as well and they were less than helpful. I think her exact words were "if its not on the list its fine" and that was the end of the conversation. My youngest is on the Hill's Z/D Ultra Allergy free food so I might just start feeding both of them that. This is so frustrating!

CVFlagg said:

Shay, I completely agree. I called them as well and they were less than helpful. I think her exact words were "if its not on the list its fine" and that was the end of the conversation. My youngest is on the Hill's Z/D Ultra Allergy free food so I might just start feeding both of them that. This is so frustrating!

Click to expand...

I know, it is just crazy! I just talked to my hubs and he said "throw it out now!", which I already had done. I am going to call around to see if any of the pet stores have the 4-08 expiration date yet. If we can believe that this food is safe. I just don't know what to do, but I will be feeding her boiled chicken and rice for a while.

From what I've read, the issue isn't with rice as much as it is derivatives of rice and wheat (and potentially corn)...the wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate being the derivatives. It may be worthwhile to look into a grain-free food such as EVO, if you still want to feed kibble.

It's not so much that I have a hard time trusting the pet food companies themselves, but their suppliers. It is becoming more and more obvious that this was an intentional spiking with melamine...it just makes my stomach turn. What I don't understand is why all of these manufacturers just recently changed to this Chinese supplier. I would have thought it would be because it was cheaper than other suppliers...but, the melamine increases the protein content meaning they can charge more...

Does this effort us here in ireland?

Just a reminder to keep your bags if you throw away your food, just in case we may need them as proof of purchase later. Let's hope and pray we won't, but better safe than sorry.

Gracie's Mommy said:

From what I've read, the issue isn't with rice as much as it is derivatives of rice and wheat (and potentially corn)...the wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate being the derivatives. It may be worthwhile to look into a grain-free food such as EVO, if you still want to feed kibble.

Click to expand...

Hi Lindsay...Which Evo would you suggest?

All these recalls have involved US and Canadian manufacturing sites. There have been no recalls of European foods and no reports of problems.

Just regarding the Hill's allergy diet -- are you aware this contains the preservative Ethoxyquin? Many advocate always avoiding preservatives of any kind but especially, this one. The FDA itself states on its website:

Another pet food additive of some controversy is ethoxyquin, which was approved as a food additive over thirty-five years ago for use as an antioxidant chemical preservative in animal feeds. Approximately ten years ago, CVM began receiving reports from dog owners attributing the presence of ethoxyquin in the dog food with a myriad of adverse effects, such as allergic reactions, skin problems, major organ failure, behavior problems, and cancer. However, there was a paucity of available scientific data to support these contentions, or to show other adverse effects in dogs at levels approved for use in dog foods. More recent studies by the manufacturer of ethoxyquin showed a dose-dependent accumulation of a hemoglobin-related pigment in the liver, as well as increases in the levels of liver-related enzymes in the blood. Although these changes are due to ethoxyquin in the diet, the pigment is not made from ethoxyquin itself, and the health significance of these findings is unknown. More information on the utility of ethoxyquin is still needed in order for CVM to amend the maximum allowable level to below that which would cause these effects, but which still would be useful in preserving the food. While studies are being conducted to ascertain a more accurate minimum effective level of ethoxyquin in dog foods, CVM has asked the pet food industry to voluntarily lower the maximum level of use of ethoxyquin in dog foods from 150 ppm (0.015%) to 75 ppm. Regardless, most pet foods that contained ethoxyquin never exceeded the lower amount, even before this recommended change.

Click to expand...

From this very good article on reading pet food labels:

http://www.fda.gov/cvm/petlabel.htm

Also see this report by CBC (the Canadian national broadcaster):

http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/mp30/ethoxyquin.html

Shay...I'm not sure that I'm qualified to suggest any. Just thinking that based on the nature of the recalls (all grain-type ingredients) a grain-free diet may alleviate some concerns. I can't find the Innova EVO information on the NaturaPet website, but they do have this info:
NaturaPet EVO info

Gracie's Mommy said:

Shay...I'm not sure that I'm qualified to suggest any. Just thinking that based on the nature of the recalls (all grain-type ingredients) a grain-free diet may alleviate some concerns. I can't find the Innova EVO information on the NaturaPet website, but they do have this info:
NaturaPet EVO info

Click to expand...

I dont think the issue is the grain but rather the china suppliers. As Karlin noted way back, China does have issues with manufacturing. The issue is with it being used to up protein in wheat and then rice getting put into used bags. So in theory... any ingredient could get infected if if came from that china supplier. I personally I'm staying away from any manufacturer that uses a supplier that gets any products via china or manufactured at someone elses plant that may use those products.