Was $10.5 Million in Tax Credits to Purina Justified?

Purina Pet Food recently opened a new pet food manufacturing facility in Ohio. The state of Ohio generously gifted Purina with $10.5 million in tax credits.

“The project included about $6.8 million in initial incentives from Ohio, Clermont County and Williamsburg Township, along with a $1.7 million land discount from the county. The company also received a 10-year, $2 million job-creation tax credit tied to a commitment to create 300 jobs.”

Do you think it was appropriate for the state of Ohio to provide $10.5 million in tax credits to Purina when…

…pet foods manufactured at the new Ohio plant include images on their label that could mislead consumers?

The Purina Dog Chow labels includes images of grilled chicken breast, roasted lamb chop, and roasted steak. But…none of the dog foods contain chicken, lamb, or steak. These dog foods are only ‘flavored’ with chicken, lamb and beef. The dog foods labels all disclose chicken, lamb and beef “flavor” – but there is no front of bag disclosure (under the label images) that grilled chicken breast, roasted lamb chop, and roasted steak are not included in the pet foods.

The state of Ohio has animal feed (pet food) regulations that state a pet food is adulterated when (in part): “(8) Its composition or quality falls below or differs from what it is purported or represented to possess by its labeling.”

Instead of chicken breast, lamb chop and steak as these pet food labels portray, these pet foods contain “chicken by-product meal” and “meat and bone meal.”

Chicken by-product meal and meat and bone meal are rendered ingredients, they are not human grade ingredients – they are feed grade ingredients.

Chicken by-product meal can be sourced from condemned and/or inedible chicken parts. The ingredient meat and bone meal has been determined by FDA to potentially be sourced from euthanized animals. From FDA testing of pet food in 2002, the agency stated: “There appear to be associations between rendered or hydrolyzed ingredients and the presence of pentobarbital in dog food. The ingredients Meat and Bone Meal (MBM), Beef and Bone Meal (BBM), Animal Fat (AF), and Animal Digest (AD) are rendered or hydrolyzed from animal sources that could include euthanized animals.”

Unless the raw materials used to manufacture chicken by-product meal and meat and bone meal are sourced from USDA inspected and passed animals (not sourced from condemned animals or animals that died other than by slaughter), the ingredients would be considered adulterated/illegal per federal regulations.

In other words, the ingredients in these dog foods could be VERY different from the images portrayed on the labels with no disclosure to the pet food consumer.

It could be argued that these Purina Dog Chow label images of grilled chicken breast, lamb chop and steak violate Ohio pet food regulations; the actual ingredients in the pet foods – chicken by-product meal and meat and bone meal certainly “differs from what is represented to possess by its labeling.”

And unless Purina could evidence that all raw materials used to manufacture each batch of chicken by-product meal and meat and bone meal were sourced from USDA inspected and passed animals (not sourced from condemned animals or animals that died other than by slaughter), these ingredients could violate federal laws.

So…do you think it was appropriate for the state of Ohio to be so generous with tax credits to Purina?

Should companies that receive government tax credits be required to abide by all applicable state and federal laws? No enforcement discretion allowed when receiving tax credits.

If you live in the state of Ohio, we urge you to call your state Representatives and ask for a full investigation into the $10.5 million tax credits issued to Purina. Ask your Representatives to read existing law (including the definitions of pet food ingredients) and assure you/consumers that any pet food sold within your state fully abides by all applicable state and federal laws.

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Consumer Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food

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