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Pet Owners Continue To Be Concerned With Imports
The day before Valentines Day - a small shard of metal was found in a child's Valentine candy in a community just east of Tampa, FL. As soon as the story broke on local television, even before it was announced where the candy was made - I had a real suspicion to where the candy was made. It was made in China.
The day before Valentines Day - a small shard of metal was found in a child’s Valentine candy in a community just east of Tampa, FL. As soon as the story broke on local television, even before it was announced where the candy was made - I had a real suspicion to where the candy was made. It was made in China.
We don’t know when or if China will ever get their quality control practices up to better standards. Pet owners need to be painstakingly aware and avoid any pet food, treat, toy - anything that your pet consumes - that is made in or has an ingredient produced in China. Or be willing to accept the consequences.
My objective is not to frighten you - instead my intent is to motivate you to take notice of and find out where everything you give your pet is from. Chinese imported wheat glutens and corn glutens caused the largest and deadliest pet food recall in history one year ago this month. I subscribe to the FDA’s recall email list - and I receive announcements almost every single day about a new recalled product (human products and pet products). Better than 60% of all of these new recalls are from imported products or an imported ingredient.
Don’t be complacent about what you feed your pet. Do not be misled into thinking that no new pet food recalls means all is well. Recalls happen almost daily mostly due to imported products. You don’t want to be caught off guard - not knowing if your pet’s food or treats contains some ingredient(s) from China or any other country that has inferior quality control than U.S. standards.
I can’t say I am completely happy with the FDA and their prior record in protecting our pets, but we are in far, far better shape than China. The one thing that is absolutely certain - right now - the risk of a product being tainted or toxic or dangerous is far greater from imported products than from U.S. products.
Do your due diligence and find out where every ingredient in every food, treat or toy your pet consumes comes from. All it takes is a quick phone call to the manufacturer, maybe ten minutes of your day for each manufacturer. Those ten minutes could prove to be a life saver for your pet. Become pro-active for your pet.
When you call a pet food or pet treat manufacturer - ask them if they use all U.S. ingredients.You might get an answer like’yes, we use all U.S. suppliers’.Nope, that’s not the information that you need - the supplier or distributor might be a U.S. company, but the actual ingredient could come from China.This is exactly the case with the contaminated wheat and corn glutens from a year ago.If you hear the ‘U.S. suppliers’ response, ask more questions’Do any of the ingredients in your pet food or pet treat originate from countries other than the U.S.?’Tell them you want to know if any ingredient in the pet food or treat is made in or grown outside the U.S.From my experience in asking over 30 different pet food/treat manufacturers these questions for Petsumer Report - you can tell pretty quickly which manufacturers are using all U.S. ingredients and who is not.The companies that use all U.S. ingredients - with the few expected exceptions like lamb and venison from New Zealand - are quick to tell you.The ones that don’t - the companies that might purchase minerals, vitamins, or glutens from China - take you on an investigative journey before they finally give up the information you deserve to be told.
It’s not that all Chinese imported ingredients or products are dangerous to your pet. It is that they have a history, a proven on-going history of exporting recalled, potentially dangerous products and there is no sign of improvement. Buyer beware. For your pet’s sake, find out if you are feeding a food or treat that contains imported ingredients.