There are 5 BIG companies who may have bought tainted rice gluten, also from China, and there may be many more recalls to come. Natural Balnce already recalled their products, but the fishy thing is, they claim to be grain free. Now they have changed their ingredient lists on their web site to include rice protein. This is getting out of control, and it is very scary.
This was taken from USA today on Itchmo site....
USA Today: Rice Protein Sold to 4 Others
April 17th, 2007
Supplier was identified as San Francisco-based Wilbur-Ellis. CEO John Thacher said ?his company sold the concentrate to five pet-food makers, but that most of it went to two firms.? USA Today says of those five, only Diamond Pet Foods is named. The other major manufacturer tested for melamine and it did not test positive. Diamond Pet Food says they do not use rice protein in their foods.
According to Thacher, the melamine contamination was reported to the FDA a week ago on Sunday.
The rice protein concentrate was imported from China from Binzhou Futian Biology Technology. Their Web site lists three different types of feed grade rice protein.
Also of note, as you may have read in our comments, Natural Balance has updated their list of ingredients to include rice protein in recent days ? raising questions about when the substance was actually added to the product. Howl911 has a side by side ingredient
From the Sacramento Bee article:
Local veterinarians who?ve tracked kidney ailments nationwide have tentatively identified five more foods, not at this point under any recall, that they plan to have tested as soon as possible.
The Veterinary Information Network, used by about 16,000 of the estimated 35,000 U.S. veterinarians, noticed the five foods kept recurring in vet-described disease reports, said Paul Pion, the Davis vet who co-founded the service. Pion said it would be premature to name the foods.
Emphasis ours. We should also note that we hold Dr. Pion in the highest regard and we hope that you will also trust him to do the right thing at the right time. We do.
Why is releasing this information important if there?s no confirmation? We want the FDA and others to take notice and tell us who else got the rice protein. Dr. Pion shouldn?t have to do this. It?s not his job. The supplier already told us the food went to more than Diamond. Someone already yelled ?fire? in a crowded theatre.
Go here for more information......
http://www.itchmo.com/