• If you're a past member of the board, but can't recall your password any more, you don't need to set up a new account (unless you wish to). As long as you recall your old login name, you can log in with that user name then select 'forgot password' and the board will email you at your registration email, to let you reset your password.

NATURAL BALANCE ....... Urgent!!

So, it's obviously really hard to trust any commercial dog food company right now. I mentioned before that I switched Coco back to Innova from NB. Do you think it's safer to feed our dogs a grain-free (ie. Evo) food until all this is over? Should we try to avoid all rice in kibble? This is so confusing...
 
Wellness has updated the information on their site...it's more up-to-date now and covers the rice protein concentrate issue.

April 19, 2007



Dear Pet Parents,


Like many of you, we were upset to learn that the presence of an illegal contaminant has again been found in the pet-food supply, this time involving rice protein concentrate.

We have no reason to believe that any Wellness or Old Mother Hubbard products are affected in any way. In fact:




We do not source rice protein concentrate from Binzhou Futian Biological Technology, the manufacturer of the contaminated rice protein concentrate used in the Natural Balance products.
We do not purchase rice protein concentrate from Wilbur-Ellis.
We have visited the plants where we source our rice protein concentrate, and they have consistently met our stringent standards. We have been purchasing from them for several years and have not recently added any new suppliers.
We wanted to make you aware of the facts concerning our ingredients and quality assurance program.


Why We Use Rice Protein Concentrate


Rice protein concentrate is an expensive, premium and natural ingredient that is used in, for example, cereal, baked goods, and in some premium, natural pet foods. It is a source of protein with strong non-allergenic properties. At Wellness, we use rice protein concentrate in a handful of products that are formulated for allergies, including:

Simple Food Solutions
Two flavors of the WellBars (Fish and Sweet Potato and Yogurt, Apple and Bananas)
Old Mother Hubbard Puppy Treats

These are our only products that contain rice protein concentrate.


Our Quality Assurance Program


All of Wellness and Old Mother Hubbard products are produced according to our proprietary recipes, with our specified ingredients, and our quality standards.

We require a complete cleaning and sanitation between each product run to help ensure the purity of our products.
Our facilities are regularly audited by Cook & Thurber, a HUMAN FOOD auditing firm.
We require that our suppliers provide ingredients that are free of contaminants.
Our employees monitor the quality control processes at all manufacturing plants.

New Enhancements to Our Quality Assurance Program


Wellness has consistently provided healthy, natural products to pet parents. Whenever our industry is confronted with a new issue, we incorporate new procedures into our quality assurance program. We are doing so here and will continue to take all appropriate steps to help ensure the continued integrity of all our products. For example, we are supplementing our vendor qualification processes to require them to show proof of testing for new known contaminants, and we are expanding our own testing procedures to address a wider selection of ingredients and contaminants.


Working Together


The presence of illegal contaminants like melamine in pet food is a new issue, and one that is being investigated by the regulatory authorities. While we have no reason to believe our products are affected by this matter, the uncertainty those issues have created across the industry is of great concern to us. We urge government and regulatory officials to continue acting with due speed to identify the source of the contamination and hold that entity accountable.


The safety of our food supply is important to all of us. Working together with other industry stakeholders, we firmly believe that confidence in the supplies of food for our pets and our families can be restored.


As always, if you have any questions, we are happy to help. You can reach us at 1-800-225-0904.

Jim Scott
Chief Executive Officer

Deborah Ellinger
President
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After much debate, I decided to put Ruby on California Natural. I spoke with the owner of a health food pet store, and pretty much all he carries is food made by Natura. He gave me a few samples of the chicken and the lamb dry food so that I could decide which was best for Ruby. Hopefully this nightmare will be over soon and there will be no more recalls....He assured me that CM was only made with US-grown ingredients, so hopefully we'll be safe with this one!!
 
Gracie's Mommy said:
Wellness has updated the information on their site...it's more up-to-date now and covers the rice protein concentrate issue.
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I dont think its up to date enough. I emailed them over 3 days ago and specifically asked if any of their products had ingredients sourced from China - they have yet to answer that. They say its not from the affected supplier - they dont outright say they dont import from another China supplier. Other pet food manufacturers have emailed replies in under 3 hrs stating whether all ingredients are home grown. Nutru Ultra is my other sore point. Their website form doesnt even work for customer questions - I cant be bothered to phone a company that cant keep a web form working in a crisis situation like this. Its easier to move on to manufacturers that are more on the ball.

California Natural has a nice ingredient list for a dog where you want low allergens. I thought about using it way before this mess and still would in light of this mess if I wanted to try another food or skin issues develop as Kodee grows
 
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You're right Kodee, the new announcement doesn't say specifically that they don't use Chinese product at all. However, the previous announcement listed the countries and ingredients that they outsource from. Lamb from New Zealand and a few others...I'm not overly concerned with the fact that it comes from the US only...I'm more concerned with the fact that the ingredients come from countries that aren't known for sketchy food prep. China doesn't meet that requirement; I think New Zealand does.

We can agree to disagree on this one. I agree that Wellness' e-mail response was less than desirable, but they did leave me a polite an informational voicemail. At this point, I feel as comfortable as possible with my choice in Wellness...as much as I would be with any brand right now, regardless of what their e-mails may say about where the ingredients come from.
 
I put Lucky on Evo (with added pumpkin) last night & he loves it. Did I mention he LOVES it??? :D

I feel better knowing it has no grains & that's why I made the choice.

Also ... Razz's test results came back today!!! YAY!!! His liver & kidney functions were all perfectly normal & the Dr. was really pleased. He's also going on Evo now.
 
Gracie's Mommy said:
We can agree to disagree on this one.
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Dont mind me, its not actually their kibble that has me in a tissy. Its their Wellness Bars - specifically the yogurt one Kodee has been eating. It has a rice protein and Wellness has been emailing me for days (3 emails now) avoiding answering one specific question; do you use any chinese suppliers for ingredients (I specifically asked about that one product to boot). I just want a no or yes on it and it's driving me nuts! I think they should be upfront if I want to know what I feed my dog. Sorry its not about your food choose but rather wanting an aswer on what i have fed my dog!
 
Lani, I'm so glad that all's well with the doggies!! :)

At least the "worry factor" is gone for Razz and Lucky!!
 
Sorry Debbie...I keep forgetting that your issue is with the treats not the food. The food (Super5Mix Chicken) does not contain rice protein concentrate, wheat gluten or corn gluten. I do understand, however, that if the product has/had rice protein concentrate, you would want different answers. I do totally agree that their e-mail policy leaves much to be desired. I get the feeling that you've already moved on to a different treat (the yogurt ones?), have you considered calling them. Perhaps if you speak with them in person they would be more inclined to send the e-mail so that you can have the wording you're looking for in writing....not that they shouldn't be able to do that without the phone call.
 
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