Debsue

I am truly glad that your sample yielded no toxins.  I am certain you are relieved. 

Regarding the comments:

the black chunks are "part of the natural vitamin premix," and they have since reduced the particle size specification "to eliminate this issue." 

In our phone conversation the president stated the black chunks (ref. our sample) were chunks of vitamin mineral premix.  He said the ingredients all go through a grinder and as a result nothing should remain a chunk.  He said the premix is added separately.  He mentioned he thought it was very rare, but sometimes the premix will ‘clump’ due to moisture or whatever else and that might result in chunks. 

 “White chunks are bone” and “typical for this product”   

What??

 “I'm pretty sure the white chunks weren't brown rice, and I don't think it was connective tissue sticking out of my kibble.” 

Our beige chunks were not rice, unless rice now comes in pyramid types shapes.  And the object sticking out of our kibble does not appear to be connective tissue either. 

I’m glad that you did not have to wait long for the results and that they actually reported back with you. 

Donna

Maybe I'm being a little paranoid here but for some reason, this all makes sense to me.  The fact that the first sample sent to Expertox was found to have contaminants in it & Natura can't seem to find the sample & test it.  The next sample, even with the same chunks in it, was found to be squeaky clean.....now this sample Natura located, tested & happily gave the info to the consumer.  Hmmmmm.  What a huge coincidence, dontcha think?

I just cannot equate wholesome food for my dog with chunks of blue plastic, hair & what looks like sutures.......ewwwwwwwww.  Plus that, out of date meat, complete with plastic & styrofoam, isn't exactly what I'd be feeding my dog at home.  This is gross & should not be going into pet food PERIOD.  I won't even go into rendering because that's landfill, not pet food.  I would expect this kind of crap from the big guys because they are greedy sleaze bags but not from the smaller companies that we all trusted. 

No, JanC, not paranoid at all.  That nice big chunk of time they asked for to 'get the test results' are just perfect for a silent recall.  It's been the way they have all been taking care of these problems for months now--no embarrassed announcements, big fallout from public outcry, just go in & take it all back & restock the shelves with new runs, then come back & say, it's all OK, everyone go back to sleep.  It totally makes sense that they would do this, from a business/economic/lno awsuit/save your a** standpoint.

Expertox, with all their resources, couldn't get the black chunks from my sample to dissolve in solution, so I'd be surprised if anyone could get them to dissolve in vinegar in EleanL's experiment.  Maybe some of the chunks are clumped vitamins, but I doubt that all of them are.  Even giving the benefit of the doubt and saying they are, they're not doing my dogs any good if they won't dissolve and are just excreted out.

Hopefully, Natura is beginning to take this seriously.  I went to the pet food store today where I (used to) buy Innova.  I had shown them my sample before I sent it off for testing.  The clerk asked if I'd heard anything yet and said that Natura had called them "like 5 times" in the past week.  She didn't know exactly what they called about, other than to find out if any other customers had complained.

Hummm - have you actually heard of them doing a silent recall?  It sounds as if you are saying the Natura people would be pulling stock off a shelf and replacing it with something else?  Or are you saying they are telling stores to do this?  The only odd thing about that theory, is that we have a local store that has been very responsible throughout the recalls.  They have pulled any and all brands associated with the recalls and no longer sell those products.  I think the one exception is that they still have the dry food for Chicken Soup (the cans were recalled).  They also stopped offering one brand because they couldn't get a straight answer from them as to where their product was made.  They completely dropped Iams, Eukenuba, Nutro, Science Diet and Pro Plan - although they were always more into the natural foods and these were offered for convenience.   I have a hard time thinking this store, that sells Natura product, would be complicit in any recall effort.  I am sure they are probably watching this forum thread as they have the itchmo web page linked to theirs.

We had those black and white chunks in our Karma (also a Natura product) and did our own very unscientific test on the Karma kibble.  We put about 6 oz bottled water in a clear drinking glass.  Put small amount of kibble in the water, which was room temp.  Left overnight.  Everything had dissolved.  No stirring.  The following morning (and this would be most likely some 9 hrs later) the water was just sort of cloudy and only very tiny specks of anything in it.  None of the chunks/particles or colored specks that might've been part of those particles.  This was in a way a relief, and it also would indicate to me that the white chunks were not bone (but not rice, either) but this glass of water/Karma had the foulest odor!  I had done a sniff test on the dry kibble when Jake refused to eat it, and I did not detect any odor from the kibble.  Jake the dog, otoh, must have, since he refused it w/out even one taste.  We tried mixing it in w/ his California Natural Herring and Sweet Potato (both dry kibble, nothing added) and he would take his paw, somewhat cat-like, and sweep the kibble onto the kitchen floor.  Then he would select only the Herring and Sweet Potato, leaving the Karma on the floor. 

As I said, the above is totally unscientific but did demonstrate in hindsight that chunks dissolved in plain water, leaving only tiny light brown speckles in cloudy water so we know those white/cream chunks were not bone.  Gave our microscope away decades ago.  Now regretting that!

A person in the pet food industry suggested that the most probable explanation for Jake's sudden refusal to eat Karma when new bag was opened was that this bag had mold on/in food.  Perhaps the same was true for the last bag of Karma biscuits that were not well received and hidden around the house.  All this is just speculation and has to do w/ Karma and nothing to do as far as explaining the Innova results from ExperTox.  Except for samples from our pet supply store, our Jake never had Innova...and those samples he did eat were almost a year ago.