Are one company?s products ? made in the same plant on the same equipment with ingredients called the same name ? really ?better? than another?s? That?s what the makers of expensive brands want you to think. The recalled premium brands claim that Menu makes their foods ?according to proprietary recipes using specified ingredients,? and that ?contract manufacturers must follow strict quality standards.? Indeed, the contracts undoubtedly include those points. But out in the real world, things may not go according to plan. How well are machines cleaned between batches, how carefully are ingredients mixed, and just how particular are minimum-wage workers in a dirty smelly job going to be about getting everything just perfect?
Whatever the differences are between cheap and high-end food, one thing is clear. The purchase price of pet food does not always determine whether a pet food is good or bad or even safe. However, the very cheapest foods can be counted on to have the very cheapest ingredients. For example, Ol? Roy, Wal-Mart?s store brand, has now been involved in 3 serious recalls.
Menu manufactures canned foods for many companies that weren?t affected by the recall, including Nature's Variety, Wellness, Castor & Pollux, Newman's Own Organics, Wysong, Innova, and EaglePack.
Another unpleasant practice exposed by this recall is pet food testing on live animals. Menu's own lab animals, who were deliberately fed the tainted food, were the first known victims. Tests began on February 27 (already a week after the first reports); animals started to die painfully from kidney failure a few days later. After the first media reports, Menu quickly changed its story to call these experiments ?taste tests.? But Menu has done live animal feeding, metabolic energy, palatability, and other tests for Iams and other companies for years. Videotapes reveal the animals? lives in barren metal cages; callous treatment; invasive experiments; and careless cruelty. |