Pet food company Nutro announces recall of dry cat food
Pet food company Nutro has announced a recall of dry cat food sold in the U.S. and 10 other countries, including Canada, Mexico, Japan and Israel. The cause of the recall, Nutro says, was a production error that caused incorrect levels of potassium and zinc to be used in the affected food.
Nutro dry cat food that bears a "best if used by" date falling between May 12, 2010 and Aug. 22, 2010 should be returned to the retailer for a refund or exchange. "Two mineral premixes were affected" by the error, which was made by a premix supplier, according to a statement on Nutro's website. "One premix contained excessive levels of zinc and under-supplemented potassium. The second premix under-supplemented potassium."
The company says it has received no consumer complaints about adverse health effects on cats who ate the food, but cautions owners to watch out for symptoms including reduced appetite or refusal to eat, weight loss, vomiting and diarrhea. (ConsumerAffairs.com dismisses the claim that no complaints were received, saying that it has logged more than 800 complaints about Nutro's food from pet owners.) Owners of at-risk cats, such as those that are pregnant or already in poor health, should check with their veterinarian.
Nutro's moist cat food, cat treats, and dog food (dry or moist) are unaffected by the recall. For a full list of affected products, see Nutro's website or call (800) 833-5330 between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Central time.
-- Lindsay Barnett
Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
If you don't test your incoming ingredients for zinc levels, you don't know WHAT you're buying. It could be arsenic.
Same thing happened in 2007 with ChemNutra and Menu - no ones has any QA/QC.
Bad QA = Bad food
Posted by: Rocky | May 28, 2009 at 02:17 PM
Thank you LA Times for this story! I would have never known about the recall otherwise....
Posted by: Nicole, Los Angeles | May 28, 2009 at 04:23 PM
Glad to see this finally hitting the news ! Its already been over a week and how many people are still using it because of the lack of coverage on this story ? Hopefully other papers and tv and radio stations will pick this up.
Posted by: Lesliek | May 28, 2009 at 09:34 PM
Thank you LA Times for running this story. Word barely gets out about these recalls anymore. Other news venues such as CNN, FOX, CBS, NY Times havent run a thing on this, how do people find out if news orgs dont put this out. They say this food can be harmful to pregnant cats and others with health issues, thanks for being about the only place to try to let people know in case people are unknowingly feeding a bag of this food.
Posted by: Sophie | May 29, 2009 at 08:57 AM
Thank you LA Times for this story.
We want the animals to have healthy food, and getting notice out to the public is a tremendous benefit to the public.
LA Times, you are great!
Posted by: Colorado Transplant | May 29, 2009 at 06:23 PM
Thanks for the article, and link to Consumer Affairs.
Consumer Affairs has 800 complaints about NUTRO.
Yet NUTRO continues to say they've had no complaints. Very dishonest, IMHO.
No complaints explains why is was a Class I recall and the media wasn't interested.
Thanks to Lindsay for seeing through the BS.
Posted by: Mary | May 30, 2009 at 04:23 AM
My thirteen year-old cat is in the hospital with elevated liver enzymes and pancreatitis after eating from a bag of Nutro food with a best buy date of August 5, 2010. Before Sunday he was in perfect health, with a clear blood work-up in March. I called Nutro this morning after hearing of the recall late last night. I told them to record the message if they weren't already, and stated VERY clearly that I was lodging a formal complaint about my cat getting sick from their food. If they say no one has come forward now, they're definitely the liars they seem to be.
Posted by: C.W. | June 02, 2009 at 06:24 AM
Nutro may not want to hear complaints about their food, but my cat was certainly affected. After eating the affected Nutro food my cat developed many of the symptoms associated with the mineral imbalances and spent an expensive weekend in emergency care. The cat stopped eating Nutro after coming home and has since recovered. How much liability does Nutro have for selling tainted food?
Posted by: Nathan | June 15, 2009 at 04:49 PM
So wouldn't I be better off to keep the affected food if my cat gets sick? No I'm not going to feed it to the cat but I want evidence if these folks don't pay my vet bills or if my cat dies from this and I'm forced to sue them for damages?
Has anyone returned their food for refund? Did the store give tou any documentation?
Has anyone had a sick pet and requested that nutro reimburse their vet costs? Did the company help them?
I',m assuming there is an assumed warranty for this product like other products and if there isn't we should all find out what our rights as consumers are.
Be careful,
Rob
Posted by: Rob | June 15, 2009 at 09:55 PM
Pet owner's testing back on the recalled Nutro dry cat food...why do petwoners have to do this to find out what is "excessive" zinc. Nutro apparently does not test for the basic nutrients they claim on the bags..and able to sell it for 6 months..pretty disgusting.
http://www.pfpsa.org/news.html
and click on test results to see actual test from U of Idaho..and also the petowner was able t buy this off the shelf after the recall was announced to the public.
Posted by: Carol | June 17, 2009 at 06:56 AM
PFPSA's recent testing indicates very high zinc levels (2100 ppm) in Nutro food.
http://www.pfpsa.org/
PFPSA found high zinc in dog food last year, but was ignored by FDA and Nutro.
Why pet owners have to do the job of the FDA and Nutro is beyond me.
Posted by: Louie | June 17, 2009 at 08:27 AM
Here's what's wrong:
Wall Street has the SEC, and the pet food industry has the FDA.
Posted by: Rocky | June 17, 2009 at 08:28 AM