Andrea Rosebrock 
At this point all I want to do is rant and rave as I continue to make additions to the recall list. One after another after another, and everyone pointing fingers at someone else! These companies need to take responsibility for their products! If they actually made their own products themselves, they might have something to be proud of and they wouldn’t be in this mess to start with!
This from the Blue Buffalo Company
April 26, 2007
Dear Pet Parents,
Due to a product-tampering incident, I regret to inform you that we are recalling all BLUE dog can products, Spa Select cat can products and BLUE Health Bars effective immediately. It is extremely difficult for us to make this announcement as we spoke with many of you last week, before this tampering incident was known, and assured you that only one production run of Spa Select kitten dry food was unfit for consumption.
The product tampering came to our attention when American Nutrition, Inc. (ANI), the manufacturer of our canned dog and cat foods and biscuits, informed us that they had been adding rice protein concentrate to our canned formulas without our knowledge or approval. Apparently this has been going on for some time, and ANI only chose to inform us when the FDA began an investigation of their rice protein concentrate supplies.
While this activity by ANI is in itself unlawful, the situation is further complicated by the fact that ANI has been receiving rice protein concentrate contaminated with melamine from Wilbur-Ellis.
So while no BLUE or Spa Select canned product has tested positive for the presence of the melamine, and there have been no reported illnesses from our canned foods, we have lost all confidence in the honesty and integrity of ANI, and the products that they manufacture.
For this reason, we have decided to remove all of our canned foods and biscuits from the retail market. While this may seem to some as a major over-reaction, the Blue Buffalo Company was founded on the principle of providing the highest quality and most nutritious pet foods available to our pet parents. Anything less is not acceptable.
The obvious question is how could Blue Buffalo not know that ANI was altering the formulas by putting in an ingredient such as rice protein concentrate. The simple answer is we trusted ANI as a partner. They deliberately deceived us and betrayed our trust.
In the end, it all comes down to integrity. ANI has not been honest with us or with pet parents who trust BLUE, so we are going to temporarily stop the production and sale of all cans and biscuits until we can provide you with products that are exactly what we say they are.
We have already taken steps to identify a new manufacturer-a company with integrity that will meet the standards of excellence that our brand is known for and that pet parents have come to expect from BLUE.
We want to thank our loyal pet parents who have stood by us during these extraordinary times, and we pledge to you that we will continue to do the right thing for our beloved cats and dogs.
Sincerely,
The Bishop and The Blue Buffalo Company Family
And from the Pet Connection we find news of Costco pulling Kirkland Signature Super Premium Canned Food, item # 38436, best buy dates of Aug. 21 08 to April 15 of 09
Read a bit about it here….
Today at around 4 PM (4/26/-7) Pacific Time, I heard from Craig Wilson, Vice President, Food Safety and Quality Assurance for Costco.
He said Costco was informed last Friday at around 4 PM by American Nutrition, which manufactures their canned dog food (they do not make a canned cat food), that some of the Wilbur-Ellis melamine-contaminated rice protein powder had been used to manufacture some foods in Costco’s Kirkland Signatures pet food line. He said Costco did not suspect their foods might have a problem prior to this because they were unaware that any ingredients in their food came from China, or that there was rice protein powder in any of their foods. Rice protein powder is not listed on the label; the label ingredient in question is “rice flour.â€
After hearing from American Nutrition, he immediately ordered all suspect foods removed from the shelves in all Costco stores nationwide. “Even with no test results yet from American Nutrition, I pulled it nationwide,†he said. (For the full post Click here)
And we have an additional update confirmation from Itchmo
American Nutrition is finally recalling their foods containing rice protein concentrate. The recall covers Costco’s Kirkland Signature Super Premium Canned Food, item # 38436, best buy dates of Aug. 21 08 to April 15 of 09.
Itchmo has learned that the recall covers two formulations sold in a single case:
- Kirkland Signature Super Premium Chicken and Rice Canned food for Dogs
- Kirkland Signature Super Premium Lamb and Rice Canned food for Dogs
(For the full post Click here)
Who’s Saying What