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Germany dioxin contamination mess - could it affect pet food?



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 7th 11, 08:23 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Nadia N.
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Posts: 249
Default Germany dioxin contamination mess - could it affect pet food?

The German dioxin contamination story has been in the news a lot lately,
at least here in Europe. It seems that chickens at thousands of farms
have been fed dioxin-contaminated feed since March of last year. Here's
a link to a BBC story about this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12134225

I am worried how this affects pet food made in Germany. I buy Kotyo and
Sweety's food online from zooplus, which is a German online pet store,
and the food I order from there is shipped from Germany. I checked the
cans that I have - the Hill's doesn't say where the can was made. The
other food they eat, called Porta21, is made by a German company but it
says "product of Thailand" on the can.

I am concerned whether the food I have been feeding them for the last
year was safe or not. Nowhere in the news articles that I have found
online do they mention whether the contaminated chicken meat has ended
up in pet food. Has anyone heard anything about pet food being affected
by this?

Nadia, Kotyo and Sweety
--
Little Monster pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Kotyo
Sweety pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Sweety
Kotyo and Sweety together:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/KotyoAndSweety
  #2  
Old January 7th 11, 09:29 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Christina Websell
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Posts: 8,983
Default Germany dioxin contamination mess - could it affect pet food?


"Nadia N." wrote in message
...
The German dioxin contamination story has been in the news a lot lately,
at least here in Europe. It seems that chickens at thousands of farms have
been fed dioxin-contaminated feed since March of last year. Here's a link
to a BBC story about this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12134225

I am worried how this affects pet food made in Germany. I buy Kotyo and
Sweety's food online from zooplus, which is a German online pet store, and
the food I order from there is shipped from Germany. I checked the cans
that I have - the Hill's doesn't say where the can was made. The other
food they eat, called Porta21, is made by a German company but it says
"product of Thailand" on the can.

I am concerned whether the food I have been feeding them for the last year
was safe or not. Nowhere in the news articles that I have found online do
they mention whether the contaminated chicken meat has ended up in pet
food. Has anyone heard anything about pet food being affected by this?

No, but why not get in touch with them? I did email my cat food people a
while ago to ask about Chinese ingredients.
I got a positive response from the firm that is not far from me - who
produce Whiskas etc.
From Bob Martin (I had some treaties for Boyfie they'd made) they could not
assure me that nothing from China was in there
so they went into the bin.
They were all honest, I think.
So why not ask them?
I would and did.
Nothing harmful will touch my beloved boy's mouth if I can help it.
Bob Martin could have said after the USA scandal "Oh, no, nothing from China
is in our food", but to give them credit they did not deny it when I asked
even though they knew it would mean I would never buy their products again.
I like them for that.

Tweed



  #3  
Old January 7th 11, 10:13 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Nadia N.
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Posts: 249
Default Germany dioxin contamination mess - could it affect pet food?

Christina Websell wrote:
"Nadia N." wrote in message
...


I am concerned whether the food I have been feeding them for the last year
was safe or not. Nowhere in the news articles that I have found online do
they mention whether the contaminated chicken meat has ended up in pet
food. Has anyone heard anything about pet food being affected by this?

No, but why not get in touch with them? I did email my cat food people a
while ago to ask about Chinese ingredients.


That's a great idea, thanks. I have already emailed zooplus (the online
pet store) to ask if they have been informed of any problems by the
company that makes the Porta21 food, but I didn't think to email Hill's
as well.

Nothing harmful will touch my beloved boy's mouth if I can help it.


That's exactly how I feel. Kotyo has early stage CRF and I am especially
careful with what I feed him. He's only 9, and I plan to have him around
for a long time yet.

Nadia, Kotyo and Sweety
--
Little Monster pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Kotyo
Sweety pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Sweety
Kotyo and Sweety together:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/KotyoAndSweety
  #4  
Old January 8th 11, 12:27 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Nadia N.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 249
Default Germany dioxin contamination mess - could it affect pet food?

Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:
I am concerned whether the food I have been feeding them for the last year
was safe or not. Nowhere in the news articles that I have found online do
they mention whether the contaminated chicken meat has ended up in pet
food. Has anyone heard anything about pet food being affected by this?


The contaminant was in eggs, which are not a standard ingredient of
catfood. The only kinds of catfood where I've seen egg listed as an
ingredient were the Hills "c/d" food for cats susceptible to FUS and
their "anti-struvite" food designed to disintegrate the crystals that
cause it. So maybe it might be worth worrying for this sort of food.


But if the chickens have been fed contaminated feed since March,
wouldn't their bodies also contain high levels of dioxin? From what I've
read online, both meat and eggs are affected -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12135747

From the link: "German authorities have blocked meat and eggs sales
from some 4,700 farms across the country after it was revealed that
chickens and pigs had eaten feed contaminated with dangerous levels of
dioxins."

Kotyo eats Hill's k/d for his CRF. The list of ingredients for k/d
includes chicken and pork liver. Sweety eats Hill's Chicken and Liver
where the main ingredient is chicken. I'll definitely be emailing Hill's
in the morning.

Nadia, Kotyo and Sweety

--
Little Monster pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Kotyo
Sweety pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Sweety
Kotyo and Sweety together:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/KotyoAndSweety
  #5  
Old January 8th 11, 01:15 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Christina Websell
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Posts: 8,983
Default Germany dioxin contamination mess - could it affect pet food?


"Jack Campin - bogus address" wrote in message
...
But you didn't ask the right question and didn't interpret the answer
right. Whiskas (the company you were dealing with) makes catfood in
factories in China, for domestic Chinese consumption; there haven't
been any problems with that product, but they have catfood factories
elsewhere in the Far East which exported contaminated product *to*
China and poisoned pets there. (Not with melamine, but just as bad).



So what you are saying is that they lied to me when I asked them about food
sources?
Tweed



  #6  
Old January 8th 11, 03:30 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
[email protected]
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Posts: 9,349
Default Germany dioxin contamination mess - could it affect pet food?

Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

Once the catfood is formulated and in the tin, there is some chance of
tracing it, since the manufacturer prints a batch number on each tin,
which will encode the time and place it was made. I have a Whiskas
tin in front of me that says


023401GB208E294
01 11 12 MU


and I'd guess the GB means it was canned in a plant in Britain. But
before then - how do you label the origin of a lump of steam-cooked
meat in a mass of jelly?


Genetic barcodes?

You'd have to get that info from whoever transported the content to the
canning facility. They will have a record of where the content came from.
However, the content itself is made up of ingredients, each of which
could have come from different places. So then you'd have to find out
where each ingredient came from. Then you'd have to ask the places
where each ingredient was manufactured, to see where the ingredients
for each ingredient came from. It's exponential. Of course, eventually,
each line of inquiry would end up with a something that can't be further
broken down, and once you'd exhausted all the paths of the import/export/
transport tree, you would know where everything came from.

EXCEPT... often times, when a plant buys ingredients/parts to manufacture
an item, there might be several possible vendors they use, depending on
availability, current price, phase of the moon, etc. It might not always
be clear which company provided ingredient X in this particular batch
of compound Q. If you're just trying to eliminate certain manufacturers
or countries, then you'd have to check every potential source, at each
stage of manufacture, to see if your blacklisted place(s) pop up. This,
at least, is theoretically possible. But you'll never get a definitive
answer about where every ingredient in a specific can of cat food came
from.

Also, record-keeping for transport isn't always reliable, so there
might be missing or plain wrong information somewhere along the line.
As I've said before, I think you'd need to hire a private detective to
get your answers.

I also think that, in some part of every manufactured item, something's
going to come from China, and I just don't think it's possible to avoid it.
But as you pointed out, China is not the only country that cuts corners,
with potentially disastrous consequences. It's just the most visible one
at the moment. You'd have to live on an isolated island, and get everything
you use from your own work or that of your fellow strandees on the island,
in order to be sure where everyhing comes from.

Joyce
  #7  
Old January 8th 11, 04:33 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Nadia N.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 249
Default Germany dioxin contamination mess - could it affect pet food?

hopitus wrote:
I woold make a bet the OP lives elsewhere, with a name like that one,
an email
addy like that, and importing pet food from Europe, but who knows? She
could
live in Chi-town for all I know.


Spain, actually :-) The choices for decent quality pet food are very
limited in the stores here, which is why I order online.

You can't really guess where someone lives from their name, though.
Until 4 years ago I was living in Canada, and I still had the same name
and email address :-)

Nadia, Kotyo and Sweety

--
Little Monster pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Kotyo
Sweety pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Sweety
Kotyo and Sweety together:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/KotyoAndSweety
  #8  
Old January 9th 11, 01:12 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Nadia N.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 249
Default Germany dioxin contamination mess - could it affect pet food?

hopitus wrote:

You have some beautiful cats I see. No wonder you pamper and
care for
them so diligently. Long may they make you happy, no matter where you
are.


Thanks. I'm glad you liked them. I've told them they have a new admirer,
and Sweety started purring contentedly. She's a ragdoll like your
Snaggly, and she is a bit vain. Kotyo... well, he is a lone wolf from
the wilds of Whistler, and he does not care about the opinion of mere
hoomins. Unless they are carrying anything edible, that is.

Nadia, Kotyo and Sweety
--
Little Monster pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Kotyo
Sweety pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Sweety
Kotyo and Sweety together:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/KotyoAndSweety
  #9  
Old January 9th 11, 01:12 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Nadia N.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 249
Default Germany dioxin contamination mess - could it affect pet food?

Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:
I woold make a bet the OP lives elsewhere, with a name like that
one, an email addy like that, and importing pet food from Europe,
but who knows? She could live in Chi-town for all I know.

Spain, actually :-) The choices for decent quality pet food are
very limited in the stores here, which is why I order online.


That may be because we in Scotland get to buy catfood made in Spain
from a local branch of a German supermarket chain (Lidl's "Coshida"
brand). There's none left for you.

Maybe you're getting Scottish-fish-based catfood processed in Italy
to compensate.


Hehe, that's possible. But mostly I think it is because Spain is a
country of d*g lovers. There are tons of d*gs everywhere, and lots of
different kinds of food and toys for d*gs in the stores. But cat stuff,
not so much. Makes me miss Canada - even the smaller pet stores there
had a pretty good selection of wet food and cat litter. Here they have a
hundred varieties of Royal Canin dry food, a couple of cans of Hill's,
and that's it.

Nadia, Kotyo and Sweety

--
Little Monster pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Kotyo
Sweety pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Sweety
Kotyo and Sweety together:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/KotyoAndSweety
 




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