Pet Food Consumer Input Requested

I want what is listed as ingredients to match what is in the bag. (This is referring to the Chapman’s University protein DNA test that shown what was advertised did not match what was in the bag.) It is sickening that pet food companies can advertise something to be 100% turkey but really it is beef or pork or chicken.

Wonder why pet food isn’t being regulated honestly like it should be, why do the big corporations insist on harming our pets through the food that they consume? pet food companies should want to create healthy fare so that our pets could be sustained for a longer time, many people that lose an animal because of poisoned pet food ingredients decide never to acquire another animal………….ever, so, that would mean a loss of income for any company that serves up, either ingredients from China, or moldy, aflatoxin, mycotoxin and salmonella riddled food, to name only a few poisons, from this country or any other. Get real and get honest and give us some decent regulations that you will follow, adhere to and let us know that this is true by the health of our pets for many years going forward.

I want to be sure the food I am giving my pets does not come from diseased or contaminated food sources. I also want to know where these ingredients are from, not just who distributes them. I just want the truth. I believe I am adult enough to make my own decisions given the whole and truthful facts. I want the FDA to abide by and enforce all of their rules and regulations for every manufacturer and make public all findings.

Step one of any food safety measures should be to enforce rules that are already written, both AAFCO and FDA. Second, ingredients should be food grade, not feed grade, or labeling must clearly reflect the difference. I’d like to eliminate the practice of disallowing statements on the label that reveal the quality of the ingredients (companies using human grade ingredients/approved for consumption by humans/USDA inspected and approved should be able to say so)

I want complete transparency in all ingredients and manufacturing processes of all pet foods. I want to know where every ingredient is sourced including the country of origin (if not USA). I want to know the grade of meats are that go into my dog’s food. I want to know if there are any inspections of the products and produce that go into my pet’s food by a governing body or independent body. I want to know where all produce is sourced including the presence of GMO’s, chemicals, insecticides, fungicides, etc. or if it is produced organically I want to know the country source. I would like to know if the supplements that are added into pet foods are synthetic or food-based and also free of GMO’s. I want to make manufacturers responsible for any and all toxic or over-supplementation ingredients and for manufacturers to try to use third-party labs to sample their ingredients to make sure nothing is harmful. If manufacturers find a product that is toxic or even potentially toxic, I expect them to inform the PUBLIC over all media sources so pets will not be unduly harmed in any way! I want all pet food outlets to IMMEDIATELY REMOVE ANY AND ALL RECALLED PRODUCTS! And I want the health of pets to be of the same importance as any other sentient creature and companion animals. I also want a larger variety of sources for pet foods and different price points as everyone cannot feed their pets at the same economic level! I expect nothing less from my pet food than I do from my own food. I would also like to make it easier for locally-owned producers of meats, milk, etc. to be able to market their products to the PUBLIC without excess regulations from such agencies as the FDA, Agriculture, etc. who are in charge of food rules. Because my ability to source raw foods and products for my pets has gotten so restricted it’s ridiculous! I also want funding for this as I have said before this is just as important as my own food sources! Thank you for your consideration.

1) Country of origin for all ingredients
2) Country of preparation for all ingredients
3) Guarantee of drug-free meat ingredients
4) Elimination of blanket terms like meat meal when you mean spoiled, ground up roadkill, slaughter offal, or diseased animal parts.

Obviously, revisions to the FSMA is being pushed by the AAFCO. What are the revisions requested and why the need to revise the ACT? This consumer want to see the FSMA implemented now as the pet food industry has stalled long enough.

I believe that I have the right to know the country of ORIGIN of ALL ingredients in the food I feed to my animals, not just the country of manufacture. I also strongly believe that diseased or rotten meat and moldy or otherwise spoiled ingredients have no place in pet food. All ingredients should be fully disclosed. If it states on the label that the protein source is rabbit, it should be rabbit and not chicken, beef, or whatever.

In other words I would like to see, full and honest disclosure of all ingredients, quality control, stricter regulation, and enforcement.

I want my pet food to be HUMAN GRADE ingrediemts. Not second or third hand or even worse. Not ingrediemts that have no nutritional value. Not moldy grain that once ingested, the liver cannot get rid of the aflotoxins, and will lead to liver cancer, or worse, will kill my dog quickly. Or meat that has been peutrified. Or chicken feathers. If food has gone bad, instead of still trying to make profit by feeding it to our pets, or livestock. THROW IT AWAY, In fact, I’d like pet food to be superior human grade. Organic, with no GMOs. Their bodies are smaller, most the time, and they can’t handle the toxins. If I knew what I know now, my dog would still be alive. And what’s with the vetenarians pushing this toxic food. Sick pets are more profitable I suppose. I am so thankful to Susan Thixton for her work. It’s time we honor our animals, they are great spiritual beings that quietly help us through life. They deserve good, honest, fresh, nutritious food. E:x

I want to see source ingredients as well as where the product is made. I want pet food to be human grade quality and the nutrition values and what they are from clearly placed on each bag of food (i.e. chicken breast rather than chicken meal). I don’t want to lose another dog at 4-1/2 yrs. old to lymphoma because the food I provided to her poisoned her. In other words much stronger control of what is put into the dog food. I want to be able to trust the manufacturer that the food I put into my dog’s bowl to be food of a quality that each AAFCO representative would be comfortable if picked off the shelf and put into the bowl of their own animal, and be comfortable with their animal eating that food for a month or more.

Under Background – “A. Current Approaches to Animal Food Safety 2. Section 402 of the FD&C Act – 2.” All of the Compliance Policies listed below are in violation of FD&C Act for any food.
CPG Sec. 675.100 Diversion of Contaminated Food for Animal Use
CPG Sec. 675.200 Diversion of Adulterated Food to Acceptable Animal Feed Use
CPG Sec. 675.300 Moisture Damaged Grain
CPG Sec. 675.400 Rendered Animal Feed Ingredients
CPG Sec. 690.300 Canned Pet Food
These FDA Compliance Policies remain a violation of federal law and FDA HAS NO AUTHORITY to pick and choose which laws it enforces. If FDA truly wishes to improve the safety of animal feed/pet food, the FD&C Act should be enforced as it is written.
FDA should not pick and choose which food safety law it enforces.

If the Food Safety Modernization Act applies “food” to include animal food and the FD&C Act defines “food” to include food for animals, how can FDA conclude there are any differences between human food and animal food? If FDA is truly guided by FSMA and FD&C Act (instead of acting independent of law), there should be no differences between rulemakings of animal food and human food.
” Many pet food consumers pay high prices for specialty foods to address the allergy needs of a pet. Should one of these allergy foods contain an ingredient not listed on the label, the food should be deemed adulterated as in human foods.”

And, for example, a few years ago, I had a dog in liver failure. My vet prescribed Hill’s Science Diet for him. I read the ingredients, most of which are GMO, which have been shown in animal tests to CAUSE liver failure. WHY IN THE WORLD ARE PET FOODS ALLOWED TO PROMOTE THEIR PRODUCTS AS DRUGS???

If the FDA insists on allowing products made with FD&C Act illegal ingredients (such as rendered animals that died other than by slaughter or euthanized animals), these products should be required to provide a SPECIFIC warning statement on the label for the consumer. i.E.: THIS PRODUCTS CONTAINS EUTHANIZED ANIMALS or whatever specifically is allowed in the ingredients.

Under Background “Section C FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, Item 2 Requirements for Agency Rulemaking, subsection f” “…The Agency also requests comment on when an economically motivated adulterant can be considered reasonably likely to occur.”Please: businesses mostly tend to be greedy, and willing to make money by any means possible; ESPECIALLY if allowed by law! Perhaps I am mistaken, but the vast majority of American taxpayers/voters are under the impression that the FDA’s sole purpose for existing is to protect us from corporate greed in our “Food”s and “Drug”s and to make sure that the products we are buying are as free from harm as possible. Any inclusion of any adulterant should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law! And in that spirit: when a pet food is believed to make a pet ill, the consumer returns the food to the place of purchase for a refund. It should be required that all pet food retail outlets – when a food is returned due to a pet illness – report every incident to FDA with customer details and hold the food to be tested.

Proposed 507.1(d) refers to “waste” from human food facilities. ““Waste” that is USDA inspected and approved is welcome in pet foods; rejected for use in human food “waste” should not be allowed in pet food. Proposed 507.1 (d) should reflect allowed “waste” to be only USDA inspected and approved.” And since neither cats nor dogs can digest grains, all grains should be considered “waste” or at best, empty filler.

As I was going through this, I realized I was flagging the same issues over and over; so here it is, in a nutshell:

First and foremost, I demand safety in pet foods; and since they are handled on my kitchen counters, that apparently must mean HUMAN GRADE FOODS ONLY.
Due to foot dragging and outright obfuscation by pet food manufacturers and regulatory agencies, anything less will mean continued danger to myself as well as my pets.
What, then, is the point of the FDA?
NO business should be exempt from OUR safety laws.
““Facilities solely engaged in the storage of packaged animal food that is not exposed to the environment.” must be held to the same high safety standards!
OTHERWISE, WHY EVEN HAVE AN FDA OVERSIGHT IF PRODUCT SAFETY HAS LOOPHOLES? We could save a lot of tax money but cutting back an FDA that does not do the job we pay it to do.
I am already getting the picture that all these “regulations are nothing but loopholes, exceptions, and negligence.
One alternative to the FDA having to actually do the work is to simply require that all pet food which is not human grade food, carry a warning label, similar to that on cigarettes, notifying consumers that the “product may contain diseased components, dangerous pathogens and fungal contaminants, which are a health risk to humans and pets”.