Beneful Dog Food Warnings w/ Response from Purina
Beneful Dog Food Warnings
Recently a warning went out to thousands of animal caretakers about a potential problem with Beneful Dog Food. We believe that the warning is inappropriate and premature. Purina has issued a release showing the results of a local veterinarian’s testing.
Apparently, someone posted a message that their dog became ill after eating Beneful Food that seemed to have an odd tan, mold-like coating on it.
I have spoken, at length, with Purina. I was told that they have no evidence that there is any problem with the food and they have requested a sample of the food in question from the person who reported the problem. They have spoken with a local vet and commit to looking into it immediately and thoroughly.
Purina has always valued its reputation in the animal community and has acted responsibly toward it’s customers.
Purina has asked me to relay their request that anyone with any questions about Beneful call their toll-free support lime immediately at 888-BENEFUL. They have also made a personal commitment to contact me, immediately, if any problem that exists that needs to be reported to consumers.
It is my personal opinion that it is highly irresponsible to send out a product warning based on inconclusive, unsubstantiated claims. It is tempting to be the first to shout ‘foul’ and get credit and exposure for doing so… but it does not do a service to the community and the companies that serve them to cause panic without hard data to back it up.
Regards,
Mark Robinson
President
HandicappedPets.com
Important update from Purina - February 9, 2007
Further Testing Confirms Safety of Beneful dry dog food
For the past two weeks, Purina has been actively engaged in a thorough investigation of reported concerns with our Beneful dry dog food. Purina has conducted numerous tests to confirm the quality and safety of Beneful, including physical and microscopic examination, extensive third-party analytical testing for a broad spectrum of mycotoxins, including aflatoxin, as well as for the presence of pesticides. We have examined product from our factories, product at retail and results provided from the testing of consumers’ product, and have found no indication of any abnormalities with Purina Beneful dry dog food. This testing has confirmed that the food is safe for pets and meets food safety quality standards. We are saddened by these pet owners’ losses; however, we can state that there is no indication of a link between Beneful and the deaths of their pets. Consumers can continue to feed our products with total confidence. We encourage anyone with questions to contact us at 1-888-Beneful or visit www.beneful.com/feb2007news
Update from Purina: 2/7/07
February 6, 2007
Purina Beneful Update
In recent days, Purina learned about the unfortunate deaths of two dogs in the Huntsville, Texas, area. Concerns were raised about the possible link between consumption of Purina’s Beneful dry dog food and the deaths of the two dogs. Purina takes these matters seriously, and initiated a thorough investigation. Purina’s quality testing, including testing at independent laboratories, confirm the safety and efficacy of our products and confirm that the two dogs’ unfortunate deaths were unrelated to our product.
Importantly, one of the Huntsville, Texas, consumers also requested product testing through her veterinarian. The veterinarian submitted a sample of product to the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory for aflatoxin analysis. We received confirmation from the consumer’s veterinarian late Monday, Feb. 5, that the results for aflatoxin were negative.
Additionally, we have conducted physical inspections and analytical testing, all of which confirm that our Beneful dry dog food products are safe, and meet all quality assurance specifications. Purina initiated the testing, which was conducted by an independent third party analytical laboratory, as part of its investigation related to the two Huntsville consumer contacts. As soon as we could contact the consumers to verify product code and packaging information, we secured finished product from our factories with the same production run and date code as the products in question and submitted the samples for testing. We received test results for the samples late Monday, Feb. 5, and the results confirmed the safety and quality of the products made at our factories. More specifically, the samples showed no presence of aflatoxin.
Because the quality and safety of our products and the trust of our consumers are top priorities, Purina took additional steps, including visiting the store in Huntsville, Texas, to confirm the quality of product at retail. We obtained additional samples for any available product matching date codes and production runs related to these consumer contacts. We then submitted samples of the product for analytical testing, which also showed no presence of aflatoxin.
We at Purina are saddened to hear of the loss of these consumers’ pets and appreciate the opportunity to investigate and demonstrate how seriously we take matters of this kind. We stand firmly behind the high quality of our products and reassure consumers that they can continue to feed Purina products with total confidence.