Along about now, reading the Orijen irradiation impact & subsequent tragedies, and the previous jerky treat issues at Walmart and elsewhere in 2007 (where the cause of the problems were never identified), as a company, I'd not be so anxious to import irradiated jerky treats when my company name has "natural" in its marketing nor as a consumer/pet owner would I buy them. The really disgusting part is the one China company advertising they got ingredients from the vets for their 100% chicken breast jerky treats.

To me that is incredibly deceptive and misleading information provided to consumers by  advertising the products as such and there are numbers of petowners who suffered the agony of sick pets and dying pets knowing how that kind marketing spin made us inappropriately trust. Just because it's "legal" doesn't make it ethical, moral or SAFE.

And since I see ZERO logic in how a September lab report can make a December-never-set-foot-in-the-market product not have a salmonella problem and sat here with my mouth hanging open seeing that posted, well... all I can say is:

I didn't just fall off a turnip truck.



It's really hard to criticize China when it is USA companies being facilitators.

JJ, this one "says" made in USA.. but I'd check /write  black & decker to make sure...

http://kitchen-dining.hsn.com/black-decker-mx300-powerpro-250-watt-hand-mixer_p-4250826_xp.aspx

Great Job!!  I vote we all email Dogswell's Press & Marketing folks with the good news 

I just got a couple of washcloths from Bed Bath & Beyond.
Wamsutta Hotel .. they're made in Fort Mill SC (Global Springs Mills) pima cotton and shows Brazil as the material's source.

The liver cancer rate is pretty high for people in Pakistan due to aflatoxin problems.. weather/climate, quality control, developing nation etc.. Wonder if the PFC got the cheapest corn from Alibaba?

I gotta say "that was truly spoken like a DC lawyer" and not a consumer.....

Cannot help but wonder who his clients are... businesses? 

"David Joy is a partner in the Washington DC office of Keller and Heckman LLP. He specializes in food and drug law ..."

I hope the "friends" part will last 
Dollywad is the tiniest cat I've ever owned & she comes complete with a Napoleon complex. MK is about 3 times her size and I've held kittens with heads as small as Dollywad's. No matter, she'll take 'em all on! Conqueror that she is LOL. Sooner or later her belly (the wad part) will fit the rest of her ROFL...
I wish I could have gotten a picture of Dollywad's head next to Scooter's.. wow, Scooter's & MK's are 2-3 times bigger!

trudy,  i've been looking too for new everyday dishes & silverware..
i found this link on silverware

http://www.silversuperstore.com/stainless_flatware_silverware_not_made_in_china.html

I went looking for my favorite stainless for some xtras and found it.. dang spoon is $6.00.
MSI Alhambra Stainless Japan. Nice weight and balance to it... so I might look at some Japanese made stainless.

We've had some moments too cute for words around here, thank goodness!

Yesterday morning The Diva was getting bathed by Dollywad & Miss Kitty.. one on each side.. gosh, she drooled a bucket!! Heaven, she said.

Today, we've had a moment I've seriously hoped for... Dollywad being nice. MK has been giving her somewhat of a wide berth and doesn't trust her schizo behavior - WickedWad/DollyWad..

I lucked out and the camera was on my desk.. and so were they   

This is the FDA recall notice....
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01643.html
something else that went under the carpet (  AquaBond or Aqua-Tec II or XtraBond ), besides Wilbur Ellis:

1.)  "All of the products are binding agents that are used to make pelleted feed for cattle, sheep, and goats, or fish and shrimp."

2.)  "The Tembec and Uniscope products also reportedly contain a urea formaldehyde resin-type ingredient, a raw ingredient used to make the binding agent in these products."

It was more than just fish feed and it was more than just melamine.... and I haven't yet found any dates referring to just how long they had been doing it...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/31/business/food.1-65273.php

"Tembec has been a supplier to Uniscope since January 2004, Russell said. Employees at Uniscope, which was founded in 1975 and is family-owned, thought they were buying a resin that was fit for animal consumption, Russell said."

"Acheson said the investigation was in its early stages, and some questions remained unanswered, like how long Tembec used melamine in its products and the extent of the contamination."

Only when people can read in the media what the government does NOT do will they understand the government isn't taking doing squat about food safety & that as my signature notes.. they don't write laws to protect citizens, they write laws to protect businesses.... and when a law like FDAAA is passed, the government lets the businesses bury it. Time passes and people forget about the laws.. and that's what the industry wants.

We just can't let that go unnoticed-it goes deep into the safety of the human food supply. You cannot separate them.. pet vitamins/human vitamins; animal feed impacts both pet food/human food. There aren't lines to make them different enough from a food safety stand point to keep avoiding. People need to keep reading it and know it's quid pro quo goverance (lobbyists & $ rank more than government protection). "food safety" currently has no meaning ..just words without substance, laws without consequences.


For example. A loophole: Melamine in fish: pet food & human food. Melamine in animal feed.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/2009/01/821816/

http://www.dailyworld.com/article/20090102/OPINION01/901020306


"The Catfish Institute says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for ensuring the safety of imported fish, currently doesn't require screening of seafood products for melamine. This is despite the fact that laboratory studies of melamine-fed catfish, trout, tilapia and salmon by the FDA's Animal Drugs Research Center found melamine concentrations of up to 200 parts per million. That's 80 times the maximum "tolerable" amount set by the FDA for safe consumption."


The worst part of that loophole is the fact that melamine feed for fish was produced in the US (Uniscope & Tembec)  & was used for  US farm raised fish and that "they" let us eat it and let the fish be released into the wild isn't even mentioned. Just imported fish.. now tell me how that covers USA raised fish? They need to focus on fish period. not "just" imported.

SandiK, I'm at the point that another year has started and nothing is really in place. Outcry and consumers and some vets & media got the FDAAA.

FDA/AAFCO & lobbyists let it get buried.

I hope that Consumer Affairs will take this to the next level... get FOIA on what they've (Nutro/Mars/FDA/State Ags) been told about Nutro/Mars; get the FDA info on what they've been told by consumers & Nutro; compare it to what is supposed to be being prepared for the food registry - write a couple of articles on the status of pet food safety/FDAAA & animal food safety system and another how Nutro is handling the complaints with a new food safety system pending.. are they preparing or ignoring? 

Those questions posed in media might open some eyes.. especially in light of the ongoing melamine issues, fish with melamine (cat food???) and the melamine in the animal feeds as has been made public during the China baby food tragedy/scandal.

Same topics a year later (or 4 years later depending on which horror you start with) and we know it is a massive issue around the world - Still.

It's not an isolated problem and the pet food scandal gives consumers of human food an idea of what our goverment/aka lobbyist lawyers are doing overall.  Human food, pet food.. animal feed impacts them both as does the lack of a food safety system even after laws were passed. 

Sad state of affairs.

IMO people need to be reminded it ain't just a problem in China.. we had one here and it killed thousands of pets.. and the problem is still here and the FDA/AAFCO/USDA still have their heads up the rears of the lobbyists... the human foods IMO are no safer than the pet foods..due to the animal feed safety system sitting over FIVE YEARS with no progress and FDAAA muddled because the lobbyists in animal feed and the pet food industry have taken over the FDA/AAFCO with their desires to avoid any close examination of their industries & what ACTUALLY happens... not their PR spins but the FACTS of their business practices. Acheson needs to leave quickly and Obama get his "people" addressing laws that are intentionally being avoided to the detriment of human and animal safety (and insurance costs if you really comprehend health & food safety are intertwined).

What we need are some facts about what is happening on FDAAA and Animal Feed Safety System and the bioterrorist food safety systems... and show what the pet food industry is currently doing with reports of illness and how that stacks up from 2007. Before & After FDAAA became law.

IMO, Nutro/Mars is a prime example to use to examine the status of government & industry addressing food safety, animal/human food safety.

Going back over the topic of Nutro & reports of Petfood problems, I went back to the FDAAA passed and found this:

http://www.petfoodindustry.com/0712PETinsight.aspx

"But under the reportable food registry as part of the new FDAAA, companies must report to FDA, within 24 hours of discovery, any instance involving a food where "there is a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, such article of food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals." Also, the facility must investigate the cause of the adulteration within this 24-hour period if the adulteration may have originated internally.

The only exception to the reporting requirement is when the adulteration originated in the facility, was detected before any of the product was shipped out and was corrected or the product was destroyed. Facilities must maintain records on these incidents for two years. The records must be made available to FDA inspectors and could be subject to release to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. This puts a tremendous new responsibility on petfood manufacturers."

When consumers have complaints about petfood, are they asking if the company is informing the FDA & is the consumer informing the FDA?

Nutro/Mars is a good example to use to start making petfood companies responsible to consumers for their products IMO. The Mars Salmonella issues parallel Nutro issues IMO in how the company responded (or avoided recalling all of the affected products - see CDC report ("Other sizes of bags of the two brands of dry dog food, although produced at plant A, were not recalled. Other brands of dry dog or cat food produced at plant A, including brands associated epidemiologically and microbiologically with illness, also were not included in the recall."   http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5719a4.htm  )

Maybe it is time (or past time) for the media to address this aspect of pet food companies, pet food/treat manufacturing when they are looking at consumer complaints.. and in this instance, Nutro.

For the media articles to  approach the topic based on changes in legislation that resulted from the pet food scandal of 2007 and if they have instituted business practices that conform.   I think that the change of heart from Mars by closing a plant and its continuous expansion of salmonella recalls might have had its company focus on safey kicked up a notch by the addressing of regulatory and safety issues as reported by consumers by the media when turning the heat up a notch (like the CDC report ) and subsequent reviewing processes & legislation..and reporting on it.

"The records must be made available to FDA inspectors and could be subject to release to the public under the Freedom of Information Act."

Maybe it is time for a reporter to do FOIA requests on Nutro/Mars like the Associated Press reporter did on US melamine test results....and that we start making that part of the consumer requests made when there are problems with pet food..

From the article above:
"The law suggests emulating or coordinating efforts with warning systems already in place for human food and animal health. Congress has granted FDA only one year to put this system in place."

As we all have experienced, directly or indirectly, it takes focus by consumers/media to bring about the changes and facilitate any resolution by the FDA/AAFCO. To topically take this section as consumers and start making it a focus of ours might help remind the AAPA, PFI and other pet food/pet treat companies that there are changes they have to make by law.  If they haven't started by now, they need to be made aware that consumers are watching for compliance and action... and this is one way for us to bring that focus back instead of letting the FDA/AAFCO and lobbyists make it invisible.

"Ms Tian was the head of the Sanlu Group, the firm that added melamine to milk used in dairy products for babies. The melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, was added to the milk to conceal the fact that it had been diluted with water."
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/6117320/Chinese-melaminemilk-boss-pleads-guilty

Milk diluted with water and they try to hide their cheating with more cheating..

Sick. Totally Sick People that did/do that. There's no punishment sufficient for people that do that/did that.

RE: Melamine Dishes & Utensils

Back last year some countries (Kuwait in the link below) were banning Melamine utensils/dishes due to cheap glazing wearing off and allegedly increasing exposure to the toxins.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\09\06\story_6-9-2007_pg7_34

“A large number of organic compounds are toxic and melamine is also considered toxic, the official said. A layer of glazing powder is used to prevent contact with the human body but with use the utensils lose this protective layer and thus can be harmful to humans, the official added. ”

“Dr Bilal of Services Hospital, said that the number of patients complaining of intestine, stomach and throat problems is on the rise. He said that modern research has shown melamine and formaldehyde are responsible for such diseases. The government should ban this industry or regulate the industry to ensure higher quality products.”

“Rana Rizwan, a melamine utensil factory owner, said melamine costs Rs 115 per kg and so by mixing starch (kuluf), which costs Rs 35 per kg, the production costs of utensils is lowered. The producers also apply a lower quantity of glazing to the utensils to reduce costs, he added. Both these result in lower quality of the product and the glazing soon wears off, he added. “

I think there was another instance of banning melamine tableware in another country too, but have no copy of that one.