In looking through the later April & May recalls, the big change was toward end of April when all of a sudden it was now contaminated Chinese rice protein.  Ramblings of an insane woman - was this a code name for US meat protein? 

Remember the formulas that were not supplsed to have any grains at all, suddenly they had added rice protein to them.  (or heck, maybe meat meal has chinese rice protein added to boost the protein, what do I know)

petslave read reply #29. Both JustMe and yl are thanking you for that link? So you are being credited for that and it is a great find anyways. Take care.

yl--I'm a little confused about the Darling/pet food link too.  Their website says they make MBM (meat & bone meal) for pet foods, but they don't say they actually make them, & I've never seen their name out there.  I assumed they just sold right to the pet food companies, or rather to the manufacturing plants for the companies that order their meal.  Here's info from one site that summarizes their facilities:

http://sec.edgar-online.com/2007/03/15/0000916540-07-000011/Section4.asp

"The Company's 39 operating facilities consist of 25 full service rendering
plants, six yellow grease/trap plants, four blending plants, one edible meat
plant, one technical tallow plant, one hides plant and one pet food plant.
Except for three leased facilities, all of these facilities are owned by the
Company."

Then further down in the rendering location list:

"Grand Island, NE * Pet Food......

* Property is leased. Rent expense for these leased properties was $0.6 million
in the aggregate in fiscal 2006."

The Garden City, KN site isn't mentioned here, but is listed in the pet food company list for KN.  I don't know if maybe it was sold, or is newer than this report. 

So I don't know what the relationship here is to the pet food brands, manufacturers, & companies we know & love.  I guess we really don't know the structure of our pet food industry like we thought we did. 

You are looking at rendered product, so you might want to consider part of the rendering process.  Since you've been referring to Nebraska and Kansas, I started with Neb. Dept. of Ag. and found this in their "rendering and pet food section" for regulations.  Interesting.

http://www.agr.ne.gov/regulate/bai/tilf.htm

009 Decharacterization.
All inedible meat and carcass parts shall be adequately decharacterized  with an approved agent except where federal meat inspection regulations allow shipment of inedibles to the contrary. The decharacterizing agent must be mixed intimately with all of the material to be decharacterized and must be applied in such quantity and manner that it cannot easily and readily be removed by washing or soaking. A sufficient amount of the appropriate agent shall be used to give the material a distinctive color, odor, or taste so that such material cannot be confused with an article of human food. All inedible meat or carcass parts four inches in diameter or larger shall be freely slashed or sectioned prior to the application of the approved decharacterization agent.

003.07   DECHARACTERIZATION shall mean the uniform application of sufficient quantities of dye, charcoal, malodorous fish oil, acid, or any other agent approved by the Bureau, upon and into freely slashed flesh of processed meat as to unequivocally preclude its use for human food. 

003.08   APPROVED DECHARACTERIZATION AGENT shall mean a decharacterization agent approved for use as such by the Bureau of Animal Industry.


Donna

Thank you 3cat--all any of us want is for this to be over once & for all, but I don't think it will ever be.

Donna - I guess I vaguely knew about denaturing of food not fit for human consumption, but never thought about it in relation to pet food.  So our pets are getting these substances in their food, since, obviously as it states, they cannot be easily washed off.  (hard black chunks in food anyone?). 

This is just horrible.  The addition of acid makes me wonder about the poor cats that ate Fancy Feast, detailed on a new thread, that vomited, collapsed, panting hard & laying on their sides shortly after eating the stuff.  I'm beginning to think it doesn't really matter what we track down & prove here, how many incidents of contamination & problems we find, it's not going to stop.  This big industry is going to continue to depend on cheap, large-volume sources of 'food' & 'supplements' & be required to follow rules such as the denaturing one.  High quality raw & home cooked diets are truly the only 'safe' diets for our pets now, & probably will be forever.

yl--I haven't seen that find on the pet food list site for Darling Intl.--can you post the link for that?  Thanks!  Was that also a recent post?  This 'late' announcement on something that happened in April sure seems fishy to me!   

Petslave I couldn't find it the second time . So I removed first thread.

Donna
did you say acid ? OMG what kind of acid would they have used ? And we are feeding our pets what?

Off topic.....glad to hear someone else is having problems posting.....I thought it was my computer grinding almost to a halt but other websites are not slow.....I can barely get from page to page, nevermind post something.

Anyway, I can't believe this stuff you're digging up.....I had already made up my mind after learning all I have (since 3/16.....man oh man, you talk about a wake-up call) that commercial pf is garbage & I will not feed it to my dog.  But this latest thing really made me totally sick to my stomach.  I can't even begin to imagine the crap my dog has been ingesting......it's a wonder she's still alive. 

Commercial pf is gross, disgusting stuff.....& the companies should be ashamed of themselves for advertising this crap is wholesome, nutritious food.....why don't they eat it?  What a bunch of cruel, inhumane, greedy morons.....are they feeding their pets this s**t?  The more I learn, the more disgusted I am.