Guest panelists for a Purina media event held in St. Louis, MO last month included a high ranking official from FDA and the soon to be President of AAFCO. HUGE conflict of interest.
Purina Pet Food invited media to their St. Louis, MO headquarters on September 12 and 13 (I was not invited) for “Behind the Bowl Symposium”. Per PetFoodIndustry.com “Purina invited several that are not pet focused, including Shape, Eating Well, Family Circle, Parents and Martha Stewart Living. Remaining guests hailed from pet-centric portals for consumers like Petcha and PetHub, or from trade publications reaching pet retailers (Pet Product News, Pet Business, Pet Age) and even grocers (Supermarket News, Progressive Grocer). Purina’s plan for the event apparently involved reaching multiple audiences.”
In other words, this was a Purina marketing event – held solely to promote Purina pet foods.
Over the two day event, media guests attended multiple ‘sessions’. Of significance to pet food consumers is the session titled “The Role of Regulation in Pet Food” in which Pet Product News described as this…
The Role of Regulation in Pet Food panel included representatives from the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), Pet Food Institute (PFI) and U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). The panel discussed the importance of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), how to handle recalls, including the value of being upfront when they happen, and gaining pet consumers’ trust.
Who from FDA and AAFCO attended (and was probably paid to attend) the Purina marketing event?
Purina went straight to the top to impress media guests. Speaking about ‘pet food safety’ at the Purina Behind the Bowl media event was none other than the current Director of Surveillance and Compliance of FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine Dr. Dan McChesney and Mr. Stan Cook current employee of Missouri Department of Agriculture, soon to become the next AAFCO President.
This is a HUGE conflict of interest for these two government employees to attend and speak at a Purina marketing event.
Were they paid to speak by Purina or was their attendance at tax payer expense? If they were paid, how much? Did Purina fly them first class? Did Purina put them up in a suite at a Five Star St. Louis hotel? Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests have been sent to discover this information (and will be shared when provided).
What message was Purina trying to send to the media attendees by having FDA and Missouri Department of Agriculture speak? Was Purina trying to tell media attendees that their products are so safe even FDA and Missouri Department of Agriculture/AAFCO will vouch for them?
Opinion: Dr. Dan McChesney and Mr. Stan Cook should lose their jobs over this. Regulatory officials have NO BUSINESS speaking at a pet food marketing event. This is absolutely wrong and more than likely a violation of law (will be investigated). When FOIA documents are received, complaints will be filed with the Inspector General over FDA and the Attorney General of Missouri.
Purina claimed the event was to be transparent to the public. One thing is now VERY transparent…we certainly know who Purina’s friends are; Dr. Dan McChesney of FDA and Stan Cook of Missouri Department of Agriculture/AAFCO.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food
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Hannie
October 13, 2017 at 12:28 pm
Should any of us be surprised? I truly believe that Purina’s profits are down (parents of fur babies are now beginning to see the BS that’s been pushed on them for yrs) so the marketing event was not a surprise……even that biggies from the FDA & AAFCO were there canoodling & backing up Purina’s claims of wonderful & safe food……choke gag……GMAFB. Oh how I would love to walk into a store & pick up all of my dog’s food & not have to buy it in the grocery store & cook it myself. It will never happen until they clean up their act & I don’t think they ever will…..
Shannon
October 13, 2017 at 12:57 pm
Purina boiled a cat alive a few weeks ago, so…
Dog lover
October 13, 2017 at 1:02 pm
What?! Where did you here that?? Not doubting you I just want to know.
Susan Thixton
October 13, 2017 at 1:03 pm
It is true – link: http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/nestl-purina-changes-cleaning-procedures-after-cat-found-dead-in-enclosure/471552447
Dog lover
October 13, 2017 at 1:40 pm
Wow what a sickening story. I’ll just add that too the very long list of reasons. I will never feed/buy anything owned by Purina!!
Elizabeth
October 22, 2017 at 3:59 pm
I’d pretty much add all products owned my Nestle(owns Purina), P&G, and Mars to your list of do not buy any of their products for humans or pets. We boycott all of them and do our best to boycott Monsanto and chemical companies adding poison to our food system by purchasing local and organic.
soozyb2013
October 13, 2017 at 2:04 pm
How on earth could someone not realize that the carrier was just a wee bit heavier than normal, it would also be kinda unbalanced with the weight of the cat inside. Geez Louise.
When will these companies just agree that their practices are NOT healthy for our pets!!?!?? I know they know, they have to know, that is what is infuriating!! Greedy money hungry bastards! I shake my head.
So sorry about the kitty, so sad, so sad indeed.
Lisa Marie
October 13, 2017 at 3:10 pm
Susan , coincidentally I overheard a cat customer (at the indy store) telling another cat customer that her vet said, “You can forget about feeding those high priced fancy foods, Purina is what I recommend as their foods are consistently tested for safety.”
What a load of bs, these companies are getting desperate, more lies and fairy tales …
landsharkinnc
October 13, 2017 at 3:32 pm
I think collusion has always been in the background between FDA/AAFCO and other ‘food’ regulators or inspectors and the food industry itself – and animal feed is no exception –
Stephanie Seger
October 13, 2017 at 3:43 pm
I can’t help but wonder what the outrage would be if members of the FDA or CDC attended pharmaceutical company meetings. What makes the pet industry any different?! I find the association between AAFCO, the FDA, and Purina despicable yet not surprising at all.
Anthony Hepton.
October 13, 2017 at 6:04 pm
We have spoken to Dr McChesney in the past and he knows our position regarding Purina and their lack of compliance with FDA requirements. Until there is consistency between the FDA requirements and manufacturing performance, the pet food buyers will be facing products that constantly put our pets in jeopardy. Dr McChesney knows this and so do the executives at Purina. The only solution is to avoid all Purina products.
misspugg
October 13, 2017 at 7:46 pm
Purina poison…..
Ian
October 14, 2017 at 5:10 pm
“Purina claimed the event was to be transparent to the public” …. were you or any other non-industry pet food safety advocates invited or in attendance?
Susan Thixton
October 14, 2017 at 7:10 pm
No, I wasn’t invited.
Erich Riesenberg
October 20, 2017 at 11:30 am
In my experience, it is common for government regulators to speak at industry events. This is common at least in the areas of finance/banking and environmental / the EPA. The speeches should be posted on the regulator websites.
Follower
January 6, 2018 at 4:46 pm
In Susan’s followup article at https://truthaboutpetfood.com/pet-foods-corruption-gets-worse/ she explains the conflict of interest, and questions if (and how) the speakers were compensated. Otherwise known as “being wined and dined.”