In September of 2009, TruthaboutPetFood.com alerted pet owners to fish meal ingredients in some pet foods preserved with ethoxyquin, a chemical preservative linked to serious illness. Now it seems one manufacturer of numerous brands has changed to an ethoxyquin free fish meal. Did pet owners influence this manufacturer to switch to a naturally preserved fish meal in their foods?
Diamond Pet Food, manufacturer of numerous brands such as Natural Balance, Canidae/Felidae, Solid Gold, Artemis, Taste of the Wild, and a variety of Diamond brands including Chicken Soup for the Soul, has changed all brands to an ethoxyquin free fish meal.
To date, the following pet food companies have confirmed this ‘e’ free fish meal change…
Artemis Pet Food
Canidae/Felidae Pet Food
Natural Balance
Solid Gold
Diamond Pet Food and Taste of the Wild has not responded yet (I’m confident they will with ‘e’ free response).
I firmly believe that pet owner complaints to these various pet food lines is what prompted this wonderful change in their fish meal. Kudos to all of you! Power to the Pet People! My thank you goes out to these pet food companies for listening to the desires of informed pet owners!
However…as with almost any good news with pet food, there is more to the story. Learning of this naturally preserved fish meal change should have been an easy question to answer from these manufacturers. The bad news is that it wasn’t and some of the responses received even had a nasty tone.
This was the correspondence with one manufacturer…
Secret Shopper: “I heard that XXXXX has changed to an ethoxyquin free fish meal…is this correct? Does XXXXX guarantee that your fish meal ingredients are ethoxyquin free? What is the new preservative used?”
XXXXX Pet Food: “Unfortunately in today’s pet industry, there are so many myths and misconceptions related to pet nutrition, ingredients and manufacturing practices that we find it important to help you better understand the subject. At XXXXX we are always about transparency and openness, offering factual information about our products.
There has long been speculation and often misinformation relative to preservatives in pet foods. Much of this comes from internet blogs and chat rooms. The information is generally opinion without factual support. At XXXXX we strive to procure only the highest quality ingredients that are 100% natural and free from chemical preservatives.
All XXXXX products when produced are always naturally preserved utilizing Naturox as an anti-oxidant. Naturox, a registered trademark, is an all-natural free flowing anti-oxidant for use in the preservation of oils, fats, fat-soluble vitamins, flavors, aromas, carotenoids and other oxygen-sensitive material. Ethoxyquin is never used as an anti-oxidant during our manufacturing process, and we continually test other brands of pet food to make sure we are below tested levels or within standards of our category.”
Did you catch the trick answer? “All XXXXX products when produced are always naturally preserved utilizing Naturox as an anti-oxidant.” Key words in this response are “when produced”. Of course when this pet food is “produced” they don’t use ethoxyquin or it would be required to be listed on the label. The Secret Shopper question wasn’t what preservative is used when you manufacture the food, the question was ‘have you changed to an ethoxyquin free fish meal?’ This question was not answered directly, so…follow up email…
Secret Shopper: “Thank you for such a prompt response! I guess the question I have is your statement…”All XXXX products when produced are always naturally preserved utilizing Naturox”. I understand that some fish meal suppliers – prior to XXXXX receiving the fish meal use ethoxquin. That is my question specifically…does your fish meal supplier use Naturox or ethoxyquin? Not specifically you – but your supplier.”
XXXXX Pet Food: “Your Welcome!”
What? Again, the question was not answered. Third times a charm…
Secret Shopper: “But you didn’t answer my follow up question…please see copy below of additional question… Thank you for such a prompt response! I guess the question I have is your statement…”All XXXX products when produced are always naturally preserved utilizing Naturox”. I understand that some fish meal suppliers – prior to XXXXX receiving the fish meal use ethoxquin. That is my question specifically…does your fish meal supplier use Naturox or ethoxyquin? Not specifically you – but your supplier.”
XXXXX Pet Food: “Ohp, I’m sorry. Yes, Naturox is the preservative used.”
This pet food company never did directly answer the Secret Shopper question. We have to guess they did not because by doing so would have been an admission that at one point they did use an ethoxyquin preserved fish meal (which was already hesitantly confirmed by the manufacturer). Interesting that this pet food company did provide the unsolicited information that blogs and chat rooms are to blame for misinformation and XXXX Pet Food is all “about transparency and openness”. Transparency and openness if you keep asking the same question three times.
Two pet food companies quickly and openly stated they were changing to a Naturox preserved fish meal in their foods; one even stated in correspondence ‘we are now ethoxyquin free’. Thank you to both of these companies for being straight forward and honest (the first time!).
And then another pet food company responded to the Secret Shopper question by pounding on a pet food retailer…
Secret Shopper: “I heard that XXXXX has changed to an ethoxyquin free fish meal…is this correct? Does XXXXX guarantee that your fish meal ingredients are ethoxyquin free? What is the new preservative used?”
Pet Food XXXXX: “We have recently become aware that a pet food retailer, “XXXXX”, has drafted a letter which has been posted on many holistic websites notifying their customers that they have, “Temporarily removed XXXXX from their store”. According to them they have confirmed with the manufacturer that these brands contain ethoxyquin.
1. First and foremost, to our knowledge, no person or persons from “XXXXX” have ever contacted XXXXX regarding ethoxyquin.
2. XXXX does not add ethoxyquin to our foods.
3. Contrary to statements circulating around the internet, ethoxyquin is not the only approved preservative for imported fish meal products. Many years ago, the U.S. Coast Guard (now under The Department of Homeland Security) approved an all-natural preservative called Natur-Ox, which is made by Kemin. XXXXX has always mandated that its vendors not use ethoxyquin in the preservation process.
4. In recent years, given the increasing worldwide demand for fish (primarily human side) and fishmeal, vendors have been reluctant and/or unable to make specification demands from fishmeal suppliers because of high market demand. Natural disasters commencing with Katrina, followed by Tsunamis in Asia, earthquakes in Chile, and now oil leaks in the Gulf, all have and will further contribute to a reduction of the available fish supply to support the worldwide market. As a consequence, our fishmeal vendors have been increasingly reluctant to provide us with assurances of the methods of preservation. We were faced with a similar situation a couple of years ago concerning salmon meal. Then, as in now, our vendors reached a similar predicament in that they could no longer confirm that our salmon was ocean caught and not farmed. Fortunately, back then there was a healthy alternative, Menhaden Herring, which was equally if not more nutritious and beneficial as salmon. Since there are no healthy alternatives to fishmeal, we have chosen instead to find a reliable vendor who uses an exclusive network of fishmeal suppliers that do not use ethoxyquin as a preservative. This lengthy process began early last year and after the successful conclusion of more than 6 – months of shelf stability studies we will commence using our new source on June 1st.”
Ok…Why in the world this pet food company went off on this pet food retailer is beyond me. Perhaps they were thinking that if they make this retailer look bad in the eyes of the Secret Shopper, the Secret Shopper won’t catch on to the rest of the…garbage…they were spouting.
The Secret Shopper question didn’t ask this pet food if ‘they’ add ethoxyquin, yet answer number two above provides that unsolicited information.
Answer number three…Nope, don’t buy it. The truth is, when the first article about ‘e’ in fish meal was published on TruthaboutPetFood.com, numerous pet owners forwarded me the response from this pet food manufacturer and others. These pet food companies were telling pet owners that ‘e’ was the ONLY preservative allowed by Federal law, not the other way around. (I’ve still got the emails should these pet food manufacturers wish to dispute this.) When unknowing pet owners would write TruthaboutPetFood.com with these ridiculous lies from pet food, I provided the pet owner with the rest of the story about Naturox and Federal regulations. Then we saw their response to pet owners change to ‘there is not enough naturally preserved fish meal available’; another lie. https://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/more-on-ethoxyquin-preserved-fish-meals.html The last sentence of answer number three ” XXXXX has always mandated that its vendors not use ethoxyquin in the preservation process” is as well not correct. Their lie in number three is proven by their answer in number four…
After the blah, blah, blah, list of distractions, this pet food almost openly admits to having once used an ‘e’ preserved fish meal (in complete contradiction of their statement in number three). “Since there are no healthy alternatives to fishmeal, we have chosen instead to find a reliable vendor who uses an exclusive network of fishmeal suppliers that do not use ethoxyquin as a preservative. This lengthy process began early last year and after the successful conclusion of more than 6 – months of shelf stability studies we will commence using our new source on June 1st.” This lengthy process began early last year? New source on June 1st? Wow, did you just point out that you lied in your previous statement?
While pet owners did a great thing by motivating these pet food companies to switch to a naturally preserved fish meal, as you can tell by some of their answers we have a really long way to go. If they would spend as much time on searching for quality suppliers instead of searching for clever ways to avoid telling the truth to pet owners, we’d be so much better off.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author, Buyer Beware
Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
PetsumerReport.com
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Peter
December 16, 2012 at 7:29 am
I would never put trust in information from a pet food manufacturer “representative,” most particularly those that consumers call through help lines, since many times these employees are woefully underinformed and merely “read” from prepared statements on selected topics.
As Susan demonstrates, even seemingly knowledgeable reps will simply parrot what they are told to do, and cannot or will not answer in-depth or follow up queries. And as such, the real question she rightly raises, with manufacturers mis-using/mis-labeling ingredients, and changing ingredients as world markets become altered… is how can the consumer gain information about what is in the food that they may be feeding their pets?