Does your premium dog food contain Ethoxyquin?

[TammyJM]

The food that we give our guys does not have fish meal but it does contain salmon meal and is made by Natural Balance....safe? not safe? I actually did not know that it even had salmon meal until I looked just now. I stopped feeding my guys their fish and sweet potato flavor because I found bones in it.

[jp4m2]

Originally Posted by TammyJM

The food that we give our guys does not have fish meal but it does contain salmon meal and is made by Natural Balance....safe? not safe? I actually did not know that it even had salmon meal until I looked just now. I stopped feeding my guys their fish and sweet potato flavor because I found bones in it.

It's on the list that it does use it:

Natural Balance Pet Foods
Per Diamond Pet Food (manufacturer) “all fish meal, ocean fish meal, and salmon meal ingredients are preserved with ethoxyquin.”


This is the link to the article:

Risk Ingredients Not Listed on Pet Food Labels


This is the quote concerning salmon meal:

"Fish meals, NOT fish ingredients are a concern with ethoxyquin. As example, ‘salmon’ listed on a pet food label would not be an ethoxyquin preserved ingredient; ‘salmon meal’ might be. The ONLY way to know is to ask the manufacturer specifically. Warning however, some responses I have received did not directly answer my ethoxyquin question. As example, one manufacturer told me “we do not add ethoxyquin to any of our pet foods”. This response does NOT tell me if their supplier might add
ethoxyquin. I am waiting for their follow up response."



I use Solid Gold for my cats and checked the bag, it does contain fish meal. The manufacturer is the same one for Natural Balance, Diamond Pet Foods....The list for Solid Gold states that a representative from Diamond admitted that they do use ethoxyquin but Solid Gold is denying it. I think they do use it.....

[TammyJM]

Originally Posted by jp4m2

It's on the list that it does use it:

Natural Balance Pet Foods
Per Diamond Pet Food (manufacturer) “all fish meal, ocean fish meal, and salmon meal ingredients are preserved with ethoxyquin.”


This is the link to the article:

Risk Ingredients Not Listed on Pet Food Labels


This is the quote concerning salmon meal:

"Fish meals, NOT fish ingredients are a concern with ethoxyquin. As example, ‘salmon’ listed on a pet food label would not be an ethoxyquin preserved ingredient; ‘salmon meal’ might be. The ONLY way to know is to ask the manufacturer specifically. Warning however, some responses I have received did not directly answer my ethoxyquin question. As example, one manufacturer told me “we do not add ethoxyquin to any of our pet foods”. This response does NOT tell me if their supplier might add
ethoxyquin. I am waiting for their follow up response."



I use Solid Gold for my cats and checked the bag, it does contain fish meal. The manufacturer is the same one for Natural Balance, Diamond Pet Foods....The list for Solid Gold states that a representative from Diamond admitted that they do use ethoxyquin but Solid Gold is denying it. I think they do use it.....

Thanks for sharing this!

[hugz4all4]

Thanks so much for posting this.. I was exteremly surprised to see some of the food brands on there that contain ethoxyquin. I knew that totw did cause its listed right on their website. Im VERY happy to see that Merricks doesnt use it. I just recently switched my dogs to thier foods, they are eating it, seem happy with it and are doing well on it. So I think I found a keeper!! (finally) Not to mention they have a ton of variety.

[hugz4all4]

maybe admin should sticky this thread, for those who are looking for a new food can check to see if what foods have this in it. Just a thought

[TammyJM]

Thanks again for sharing this info. After looking at ingredients in different foods and the fact that Natural Balance contains Ethoxyquin, we have decided to take our guys off of NB. We bought a bag of ACANA today and let them try it....THEY LOVED IT!! They begged for seconds so I let them and they were funny because they dug through the Natural Balance kibble to get to the ACANA.

Thanks!
Tammy

[drabinowitz43]

What about salmon oil? Mine eat Natural Balance Sweet Potato and chicken and it has salmon oil in it.

[Kimberly812]

Here is the reply I received from Nature's Variety - a mere 4 hours after I emailed them! Now THAT is great customer service!!

Dear Kimberly,

Thanks for emailing! There are no preservatives. There are some rumors floating around about fish meal and ethoxyquin preservation. First, ethoxyquin cannot be destroyed by manufacturing conditions and any manufacturer who makes this claim is incorrect.
Secondly, most rumors of ethoxyquin and fish meal preservation are from unsubstantiated websites (http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/dogfoods.html#fish%20meal for example). The websites mentions the Code of Federal Regulations, and if you read the actual code carefully, it simply implies that fishmeal/fish scrap on a shipping vessel entering US waters/ports needs to be heavily preserved with an antioxidant, the recommendation being ethoxyquin. This applies only to fish meal that is shipped; Nature's Variety fish meal is not shipped. Our fish is frozen at sea to prevent degradation and immediately processed into a fish meal once it reaches the manufacturing facility. We have a special contract to ensure our fish meals are naturally preserved.

Third, federal law requires all preservatives to be disclosed on the ingredient panel. We are a transparent, honest, and trustworthy company and comply with all state and federal laws. We test our products for synthetic preservatives to confirm that our suppliers are selling us high quality ingredients meeting our strict specs.

Sincerely,


Customer Service
Nature's Variety
www.naturesvariety.com

[Doodlebug]

We just switched them to Natural Balance Ultra and I see that it has Salmon Meal in it. I am so disappointed and scared. We were using Nutro before that. Now I just don't know what to do. Thanks for posting this.

[enlighten60]

I am looking for a food that will help Sophie's coat to grow and get shinny. I was told that egg help out does anyone know if that is true and can they eat eggs?

[kval07]

I think Kristi at Natural Balance and I are going to be on a first name basis. I email her atleast once a month for something. I emailed about this and this was her response: (I'm stumped by her comment in blue...required by law?? I am going to look in to that when I have a moment.)

Hello,
Thank you for contacting Natural Balance regarding the concern you have with the fish products used in our diets. Natural Balance does not use ethoxyquin to stabilize any of our products. However, it is required by law (U.S. Coast Guards and FDA) that all fish meal being transported before processing contains ethoxyquin to prevent decay of the product. Once it has entered processing, heat dissipates the ethoxyquin. Some large pet food companies continue to add ethoxyquin to stabilize their products. Natural Balance DOES NOT.

We use Naturox, a natural preservative, which contains citric acid and vitamin E. Natural Balance is committed to providing the finest quality food for our companion animals, and is taking all the steps necessary to insure that this happens. We also suggest that you take some time to look over our “Buy with Confidence Program” (www.naturalbalanceinc.com) in which we post ALL the testing that has been done on our products. Before our products ever leave for distribution they are tested for the following contaminates: aflatoxin, DON (Vomitoxin), melamine, cyanuric acid, ochratoxin, fumonisin, and zearalenone. Soon to be added to this group of testing is E-coli and salmonella. Further, the FDA recommends that ALL pet food companies test for vomitoxin, aflatoxin, zeralenone, ochratoxin, and fumonisin. At this time Natural Balance is the ONLY pet food company that is testing for these contaminates.

[ltret0294]

Don't know if it's ok/proper to link to another website but here is another site's posts 600+ dating back to 2005 on ethoxyquin.


Dogster Forums - Searching on 'ethoxyquin'

[manolos mom]

Just now reading this one. Thanks so much for the info.Wonder if the fish oil caps contain this hidden ingredient?

[enlighten60]

I wrote Chicken soup and this is what was said to me.
Dear Marcina,

Thank you for your inquiry.

The Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul products are excellent quality formulas. They provide optimal nutrition for overall good health and do not contain anything harmful.

Fish meal is required by law to be preserved with ethoxyquin. Ethoxyquin is most effective at preventing rancidity in the highly volatile fish meal. Rancidity in ingredients can lead to severe illness.

Most of the ethoxyquin is destroyed in the cooking process, requiring other preservatives to be used. Tests for ethoxyquin are run routinely on Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul products. The results are typically less than 2ppm. The amount allowed, and considered to be safe, by the FDA is 75ppm.

Fish meal is an important ingredient that provides quality amino acids and omega-3 fatty acids. These nutrients are important for all aspects of a healthy life, including great skin and coat, control of inflammation and a strong immune system.

Sincerely,
Dr. Brookshire

[Kimberly812]

Quote: "Most of the ethoxyquin is destroyed in the cooking process, requiring other preservatives to be used. Tests for ethoxyquin are run routinely on Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul products. The results are typically less than 2ppm. The amount allowed, and considered to be safe, by the FDA is 75ppm."

First of all, there is a lot of speculation and questions as to whether or not ethoxyquin is destroyed in the cooking process. However, she is STILL SAYING that there IS ethoxyquin in Chicken Soup - although she downplays it by saying it's only 2ppm! I'm sorry - but ethoxyquin is a PESTICIDE - and it's a carcinogen...I don't care how small the amount is - I do NOT want my baby ingesting it!! I am quite sure that I could ingest gasoline at small amounts, too, and it be considered "safe" - but that doesn't make it a good idea! Argh!