Should Pet Owners Still Be Concerned With Imported Pet Foods?

by Susan Thixton

You might have heard of this story in the national news, it happened this week - the day before Valentines Day - in a neighboring city to where I live.A small shard of metal was found in a child’s Valentines sucker - a Pokemon Valentine sucker - and the product was quickly Recalled.As soon as the story broke here on local news - before they even announced where the product was made - I knew where it came from.It was made in China.

We don’t know when or if China will ever get their quality control practices up to better standards. Pet owners need to be painstakingly aware and avoid any pet food, treat, toy - anything that your pet consumes - that is made in or has an ingredient produced in China. Or be willing to accept the consequences.

My objective is not to frighten you - instead my intent is to motivate you to take notice of and find out where everything you give your pet is from. Chinese imported wheat glutens and corn glutens caused the largest and deadliest Pet food recall in history one year ago this month. I subscribe to the FDA’s Recall email list - and I receive announcements almost every single day about a new Recalled product (human products and pet products). Better than 60% of all of these new Recalls are from imported products or an imported ingredient.

The point heredo not get complacent about what you feed your pet!Don’t get comfortable thinking that the gluten issue is resolved and somebody is testing it and all is well.Recalls are continuing from dangerous Chinese imported products or ingredients - and you do not want to be feeding your pet the food or treat that is next on the recall list because it contains ingredients from China or Taiwan or some other country that has far less quality control (maybe better worded would be quality concern!) than the U.S. or Canada or a handful of other countries that do the due diligence to provide safe products.

I’m by no means 100% happy with the FDA or the CVM and their efforts to protect our pets (and our kids, and us!) - but we are head and shoulders above China.I think the FDA has a long way to go - and I am very hopeful they will continue to make changes to protect us and our pets. The one thing that is certain - for right now - the risk from Chinese imported products and ingredients is much higher than that of U.S. ingredients.

Do your due diligence and find out where every ingredient in every food, treat or toy your pet consumes comes from. All it takes is a quick phone call to the manufacturer, maybe ten minutes of your day for each manufacturer. Those ten minutes could prove to be a life saver for your pet. Become pro-active for your pet.

When you call a pet food or pet treat manufacturer - ask them if they use all U.S. ingredients.You might get an answer like’yes, we use all U.S. suppliers’.Nope, that’s not the information that you need - the supplier or distributor might be a U.S. company, but the actual ingredient could come from China.This is exactly the case with the contaminated wheat and corn glutens from a year ago.If you hear the ‘U.S. suppliers’ response, ask more questions’Do any of the ingredients in your pet food or pet treat originate from countries other than the U.S.?’Tell them you want to know if any ingredient in the pet food or treat is made in or grown outside the U.S.From my experience in asking over 30 different pet food/treat manufacturers these questions for Petsumer Report - you can tell pretty quickly which manufacturers are using all U.S. ingredients and who is not.The companies that use all U.S. ingredients - with the few expected exceptions like lamb and venison from New Zealand - are quick to tell you.The ones that don’t - the companies that might purchase minerals, vitamins, or glutens from China - take you on an investigative journey before they finally give up the information you deserve to be told.

Not all Chinese imported ingredients or products are dangerous to your pet. However Chinese imports have a proven on-going history of being recalled and potentially dangerous - and there are no signs of improvement. For the health of your pet, find out if you are feeding a food or treat that contains imported ingredients.

About the Author:

Before you purchase another bag of pet food, learn the secrets to selecting the safest, healthiest for your pet. Register for the free Truth About Pet Food newsletter and read from a library of pet food articles in Paw’s Club. pet food, pet food safety, Dog Food, Dog Food safety, cat food, cat food safety, imports, Chinese imports, risk from Chinese imports, Pet food recall